Set Free
by dti
Summary: Complete. Sasuke didnt believe in luck, but even he couldn't deny that Naruto got screwed a lot more than other people – and if a thing like luck did exist, Naruto sure didn't have any of it. AU, highschool setting, warnings: sasunaru, lemon, drugs, abuse
1. Chapter 1: I've Been Gone

**Set Free**

Ok so this is my newest sasunaru story. As stated in the preview, this is prewritten because I have a horrible tendency to start stories and not finish them. If you were waiting on some of my old stuff – just check my profile about that.

If you are offended by: swearing, guy on guy, underage drinking and smoking, drugs, angst…then this might not be the story for you. I promise, I will try and take Naruto down any chapter I can! He will suffer! Also, this story is very Naruto-centric. There will be sasunaru, but it will be here on it's own time!

**Chapter One: I've Been Gone**

Sasuke parked near the back fence of the parking lot at the back of his school and got out of his car, eyes locked with Naruto's blue ones.

Naruto stood on the other side of the fence, two of their classmates with him, leaning against the brick wall of the alleyway that led up to the chain-link fence and emptied out toward the street at the furthest end.

He glared heatedly at Sasuke who glared right back. It was their fucked up and weird way of acknowledging each other. Anyone who cared enough to look might see that there was something off about the way they interacted – it was almost intimate when they did. Sasuke didn't really know how else to explain it.

A car pulled quickly into the alley and Naruto broke his gaze away hesitantly as the passenger exited the car. The trunk was popped and Sasuke vaguely heard '_You little fuckers know what to do_.'

The inhabitants of the alley shot a quickly glance around before heading for the trunk, Naruto somewhat reluctantly. Sasuke knew what he was doing. Naruto was picking up drugs – probably to sell while at school.

Sasuke shook his head as he laughed dryly, leaning against the side of his car as he pulled out his phone and tapped incredulously at it; stupid, stupid Naruto.

The fence jingled as his three classmates climbed over it, landing deftly on school property as the car pulled away and disappeared with a shrill peel out.

Sasuke leaned back further against his car, arms crossing over his chest as he finished with his phone and eyes once again locked with Naruto's.

"What the fuck are _you_ looking at?" the blonde inquired easily as he slowed to a stop in front of him. Naruto hated that he had to look up just to look Sasuke in the eye. He wasn't _that_ much taller, but still; Sasuke wasn't all that tall himself – and Naruto was _still_ shorter than him.

"Naruto, come on, we can't fuck around," his red haired companion reminded in an urgent voice.

Naruto didn't move – not yet anyway. His eyes were cold and somehow imploring as if silently asking Sasuke how everything was, if he was doing ok. Sasuke's eyes shifted down to the blonde's cheek and he examined the dark bruise running across his jawline. He reached out to touch it, eyes filled with unease, but Naruto quickly slapped his hand away as he pulled away and shut off before his eyes.

"Fuck off Sasuke."

Sasuke watched him leave but he resisted the urge to follow.

oOo

"Come on, two for nine. I'll get back at you next time."

Blue eyes gazed unimpressed at the person before him and he shifted his gaze away in irritation.

"I can't front you anything – not even a dollar. Ten."

The teen hesitated a moment longer and Naruto turned to leave. He didn't have time for this shit.

"_Wait_."

Naruto turned and gazed expectantly.

They didn't really need to exchange any further words. A five dollar bill was handed to him and just as quickly, a small rock wrapped in a square of plastic and twisted shut at the top was handed back and the two parted ways without so much as a second glance.

The school bell rang for the end of the day and Naruto glanced up at the ceiling of the hallway he was in, eyebrows furrowed as he stared heatedly up at the bell he was standing under. It left his ears ringing and he hated thinking about how long it might last; did it need to be that loud, really?

Plus, he was in a bad mood ever since this morning and his irritation was only growing as the day progressed toward boiling point.

"Naruto!"

He turned in time to see a brunette with long hair approach him quickly, eyes inquisitive.

"Hey, Haku–"

"You should have given that guy two for nine. You could spare that _definitely_; and then it looks like you sold more."

"No way!" Naruto disagreed easily as he shot a quick glance over his shoulder, "I bet he's already on his way to smoke that, find more money, and be right back for more. _Heh_," there was a bitter edge to his voice and Haku wondered if he was angry about something, "Plus, after you start selling twenty rocks, _they're_ getting a deal. Sell a lot, make a lot. I break down almost every rock worth more than ten that Kyuubi gives me. And stop selling to your friends. They always want a deal."

Haku shot him an ironic and unamused stare and Naruto smiled back innocently and there was still that subtle anger he was trying to hide.

"Like when you purchase weed from me," the brunette clarified in an unenthusiastic tone.

"No, _you_ are selling to your _best friend_ which is far worse than selling to your _friend_," Naruto teased as the brunette fell into step with him while they headed for the back exit to the school.

"I should just get rid of him; I'd have more money," Haku shot back with a smirk, earning a soft laugh from the blonde at his side.

"_Hah!_ I'd like to see you try!" Naruto challenged with a competitive acidity to his tone before he furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he was overwhelmed by something else completely, "I'm so pissed about this morning."

_Ah_, so that's what that gritty edge to his posture was about; Haku wasn't too thrilled about this morning either.

They wasted most of their walk with similarly as meaningless banter before finding themselves on the sidewalk outside the back of the school where almost no one got picked up and Haku's eyes shifted up the road at the sound of a loud and expensive engine.

"Zabuza," he pointed out in a low tone while Naruto's gaze shifted up to confirm.

Naruto didn't reply by any verbal or recognizably physical means and Haku wasn't expecting him to because the car was pulling up in front of them and it was better not to talk when they didn't need to around certain people.

The drive was silent. Zabuza was Haku's…guardian, in a sense of the term. Naruto preferred not to talk unless spoken to in front of him – the same principle applied to his mother's _boyfriend_, Kyuubi.

He wasn't scared of them: not nearly. He wasn't intimidated, he had zero respect for either of them, and their lifestyle _definitely_ didn't impress him; not to mention he was the _last_ person to bow down to terrorism. But he just held his tongue because he knew it'd pay off when the time came and the time _was_ coming.

Of course none of this applied when he was angry like he was now. He could yell at his mom's boyfriend for weeks on end if given the opportunity. The loathing he felt for that man was out of this world.

They arrived at a rundown apartment complex and Naruto exited the car without a word as he headed for the hallway of doors, the two remaining inhabitants of the car exiting and following suit.

He approached the door, features already twisting with anger – he knew the person he was looking for would be home, at _his_ home.

He slammed his fist against the door leading to his apartment until he heard the thick locks unlicking one by one.

"What the _fuck?_" he yelled as he pushed through the door roughly the second it was cracked open, eyes finding the tall, red haired man in the corner of his kitchen instantly as he took his backpack off, slamming it on the kitchen table, "Why the _fuck_ would you schedule the drop off at my school? Are you out of your mind?" he screamed as he approached the man boldly, earning wary gazes from the other occupants of the apartment, "It could have waited until now!"

The man smirked before approaching the blonde slowly.

"It could have," he agreed easily before grabbing the blonde by the front of his shirt and roughly shoving him up against the wall, "But I'll bet you made three or four hundred between that time and now."

Naruto choked on the air forced from his lungs and he shoved the man off him roughly.

"Four-fifty so _fuck_ off!" he choked out as he threw the wad of cash at the redhead before exiting the kitchen for the master bedroom where his mother would be.

Haku watched him go with incredulous eyes. His audacity always startled and baffled him. He'd never even think about speaking to Zabuza the way Naruto spoke to Kyuubi and Kyuubi was far more powerful and far more terrifying than Zabuza.

"Haku, your money," Zabuza asked almost gently as he looked down on the boy.

But before he could respond, Naruto's voice cut through as he made his way back into the kitchen, eyebrows furrowed and voice angry.

"Where's my mom you fucker?" he yelled as he rounded the corner, one hand gripping the molding around the entryway and glaring heatedly at Kyuubi.

A gun was pulled and Naruto stared down the barrel of it impassively, eyes unimpressed and stance as confident and unwavering as ever.

There was a very short moment of silence and Haku quickly handed his money over to the tall man before him.

"Right, because I actually believe you'll shoot me," Naruto began in a sarcastic tone, "Where is she?" he screamed as he slammed his fist against the kitchen entry way he stood under.

She shouldn't be working. He sold _way_ more than he was supposed to and he felt frustrated and upset for his mom.

Kyuubi pulled back on the safety with a click and Naruto beckoned him to pull the trigger.

"Do it! I dare you!"

His palm smacked against the wall in emphasis when he said it and Kyuubi shifted until the gun was pointed at Haku and Naruto froze, features sobering promptly; just as quickly, Zabuza pulled his own weapon while simultaneously pulling back on the safety and pointing it toward Naruto, eyes steadfast on the red haired man across the room from him.

Naruto didn't move. Kyuubi wouldn't shoot him – but Zabuza…Zabuza might. He really was unsure about that person despite Haku's consistent reassurances in his character.

The stalemate hung for a long moment and every eye rested on Kyuubi who smirked softly.

He pulled back until his gun was pointed toward the ceiling lazily and he re-latched the safety, Zabuza following suit immediately. Naruto shot Zabuza an odd look because his reaction almost seemed protective now that he thought about it and he wasn't staring down the barrel of a loaded gun; and by the amusement pouring over Kyuubi's features and Zabuza's radiating irritation, he had a very good feeling that Kyuubi had been reminding himself to take advantage of the soonest opportunity to test a foggy theory.

"Your mom is at the methadone clinic, go wait in your room like the good little _shithead_ you are," Kyuubi suggested assertively, tone dangerous and daring him to disobey.

"Come on, Haku," Naruto beckoned as he glared heatedly at Kyuubi.

Haku glanced up at Zabuza who motioned for him to leave and Haku swiftly followed, eyes remaining submissively on the floor as they disappeared down the hall into Naruto's bedroom.

Naruto's bedroom felt like another place entirely from the rest of the apartment. It was far from pretty enough for a spread in a magazine, but it was clean and intellectual and Haku felt his anxiety ease just slightly from the comfort of it. He had a single mattress lying on the floor and a bookcase resting against the same wall as the door sectioned off into two rows of three, square units that Naruto had half filled with old school books and binders.

And that was just about it, but this room was the closest thing to safe for them and it was enough.

Naruto grabbed the pack of cigarettes sitting on his nightstand, still unable to believe he'd left them there all day next to his house key and that neither was missing. He sat on the edge of his bed, pulling a cigarette out quickly and lighting the end with a lighter from his pocket.

He took one, long drag as he laid back on his bed but just as soon as he did, his phone started beeping softly and he groaned in exhaustion as he let the smoke escape his lips.

"I have to go to work," he remembered as he sat back up and pulled out his phone, silencing the alarm before reaching over and pulling open the drawer to his dresser and fishing out his work uniform.

Haku's eyes watched him with a tinge of regret and Naruto paused momentarily to gaze at him for it.

"Do you want to come with me?"

He nodded softly as Naruto set down his cigarette in the ashtray on the bedside table in order to pull off his shirt from school and pull on his black work shirt, the word Ichiraku spelled across the back.

"Ok, let's get going," he beckoned as he grabbed his house key off the table and slipped it into his pocket before grabbing the cigarette off the edge of the tray and slipping it back between his lips as he checked his phone to confirm the time before slipping that and his cigarettes into his pockets and heading for the door.

"Where the fuck are you two skipping off to?" Kyuubi asked as they headed for the front door. Naruto grabbed the cigarette between his lips by his middle and pointer finger and scowled heatedly at the red haired man as he removed it and let the smoke in his lungs out in a quick breath through his lips.

"It's none of _your_ business but someone has to pay the bills!"

"Well who the fuck do you think is going to weigh out and bag the new shipment?" Kyuubi asked coyly as he gestured toward the separate piles of packaged, white bricks of drugs. Naruto glared at him, unimpressed for a short moment before replying.

"I'm sure you cokeheads will figure something out."

With that he turned and unlocked the three heavy deadbolts across the length of the door just above the doorknob with a practiced finesse before throwing it open and disappearing into the hallway outside. Haku turned and gazed at Zabuza timidly.

"I promise I'll do better," he breathed before turning and leaving after the blonde.

The city was always cold here and Haku shivered as he glanced up toward the concrete buildings lining the paved streets as he caught up to Naruto swiftly. It was always cold and always gray. There wasn't a patch of grass on this entire block.

Their walk was mostly quiet and Naruto looked preoccupied so Haku resisted breaking the silence.

So it was surprising when Naruto spoke first.

"Haku, don't sell while I'm at work."

The brunette gazed over inquiringly at the blonde next to him, eyebrows furrowed gently.

"Why?" he asked softly, features twisting in confusion.

"It's shady there, Haku, just–" he paused for a moment, tone slightly frustrated, "Just give me what you have left."

Haku glanced away and Naruto looked over, eyebrows furrowed in something close to pity. Haku hated dealing; it was so difficult for him – he shot Naruto an apologetic look before handing over what he still had.

"Haku, ya know, Juugo's working tonight too so you can keep him company at the bar."

"Naruto, I'm sorry I always make you work twice as hard," Haku apologized in a small voice, his eyes steadfast on the cracked pavement beneath their feet, "You don't have to try and cheer me up. I know I'm horrible at this."

"Well I'm not _trying_ to cheer you up, I'm _definitely_ cheering you up and don't worry about it so much ok? We're a team. You help me out in a lot of ways too."

He smiled warmly at Haku and Haku could only stare back. He didn't know how Naruto was able to put up such a strong front. It was so surreal to him.

When they arrived at the small twenty-four hour diner at the next intersection, Haku sat down at his usual seat at a secluded end of the bar and a tall, orange haired teen turned, eyes lighting up instantly at the timid presence suddenly before him.

"Hey Haku!" he greeted gently with a soft smile.

"Hey Juugo," Haku returned with a shy smile of his own as he watched Naruto grab an apron off the hook near the sink and sling it across the back of his neck, tying the strings across his back.

He laced his fingers together before stretching his arms out before him and taking a deep, steadying breath. His eyes slipped shut as he let the air in his lungs out slowly, lips forming soft words that never really left his mouth. Haku's features sobered as he watched the blonde mentally egg himself on. Haku was positive Naruto thought no one noticed when he was losing it because he reigned it in with subtlety, but Haku was always observant enough to tell when he was close to breaking point.

He knew Naruto was giving himself that same pep talk that kept him going for years now. There was little Haku wouldn't do just to know what kept motivating him forward – he wondered what types of word combinations were possible to keep the blonde so visibly sane because everything he kept telling _himself_ must have been substandard in comparison; Haku's internal pep talks were rarely even close to as effective and he'd mostly given up on them.

The night consisted of Haku submissively chatting with Juugo as he watched Naruto speed through the stacks of dishes lining the table next to the sink. Every so often Naruto would pause and dry his hand on the front of his apron before reaching for his phone and exiting the building through the back door leading to the dark alley along the back side of the restaurant and Haku would hold his breath while he waited, because every sale was a risk and there was always a chance they could be jumped – it happened a lot. But the door consistently swung open only moments after he would exit and Naruto would return to his dishes.

He was selling – a lot – and Haku felt so useless just sitting here at the bar and doing nothing.

By nine he was solely focusing on the dishes and only stopped to respond to imploring texts about needing a fix before finally making his way toward Haku and handing him the phone.

"Will you respond when these guys hit me up? I need to focus on knocking out the rest of these dishes. If someone texts me for a sack, just hold down this button," he explained as he showed Haku which button by pressing it, "And then select Paste Copied Text and then Send."

Haku smiled up at him and nodded reassuringly as he grabbed the phone off the counter and slipped it in his pocket.

"Thanks Haku!"

His tone made Haku's chest ache because he sounded so genuinely grateful – as if Haku were doing him a favor when it was so wholly the other way around.

Naruto turned and headed back for his dishes and the phone in Haku's pocket vibrated and he pulled it out with a hint of an ironic smile; he should have known to just keep it out.

He opened the unread message and his eyebrows furrowed as he read through it.

_Hey dobe, sorry for the late reply. My phone died and I only just got home. Two months? Two months until what? What are you trying to do? Just give it up and come home, Naruto, please_.

He felt guilty for it, but his curiosity overpowered his better judgment and he scrolled up to read the conversation from the beginning.

The oldest text was from this morning and it was from a person Naruto labeled 'Teme'.

_You fucking idiot, I cannot believe how stupid you are_.

Haku glanced at the time of the text and noticed it was received just after their pick up this morning. Someone had seen – he wondered if he needed to be worried. His features shifted toward incredulous and he read what Naruto typed in reply.

_Shut the fuck up fuck off seriously fuck off I hate you_.

If Haku thought the conversation couldn't throw him for another loop, he was fatally mistaken and he clenched his jaw before forcing his features calm once more.

_Mom's worried sick, stop fucking around with that shit Naruto seriously_.

There was a gap of several minutes between that text and the next and Haku felt his features slip slightly at the words typed next.

_Tell Mimi rest easy. Everything's falling right into place_.

What was Naruto talking about? Who was this person? Did Naruto have a sibling? This conversation made it seem that way but Haku had never met any person who might be mistakable as a brother or sister. Plus, he'd never heard Naruto call his mom Mimi.

_At how steep a price Naruto?_

Haku was instantly drawn toward the idea of this person. How did he or she know what Naruto was doing? He glanced up from the phone, eyes landing on his blonde companion's back. Naruto had always had secrets and kept them well, but Haku didn't know Naruto had secrets from _him_.

He shouldn't have been surprised though. Naruto was always juggling the weight of the world in privacy. He never let _anyone_ help.

_Don't ask me something like that, asshole_. _And quit spying on me_.

_How can I spy when you're doing it right there for the whole world to see?_

_Were you under the impression that I was thrilled about that? Because I'm as pissed as you are. Just give me two months and I'll have all this figured out_.

That was the last thing Naruto sent and Haku glanced up hesitantly to stare at him once again. What was in two months that Naruto was planning to have finished?

The phone vibrated on the counter with a loud sound that shook him from his reverie and he glanced down at the unread message.

This one was one he had been expecting – it was drug related. He quickly pasted the text as Naruto instructed and sent the reply.

_Out, restock seven AM_.

Fifteen minutes and four texts later, Naruto appeared before him and he jumped slightly when his voice floated over him.

"Wanna go see Gaara when I'm off? Geeze, I'm sorry–!" he apologized quickly when Haku covered his chest with a shaking hand, "I didn't mean to startle you."

"No it's ok," Haku assured timidly before glancing up, meeting Naruto's inquiring gaze. He knew he probably looked somewhat suspicious so Haku changed the subject, "I want to see Gaara."

"Me too," the blonde mumbled as he grabbed the phone off the counter, composing a text quickly. Haku felt his pulse beat quickly and he worried that Naruto would notice that he'd read the text message from that Teme person, "I'm off at eleven."

But he handed it back and turned, heading back toward the sink of dishes at the back and Haku let the breath in his lungs out slowly. His eyes shifted back toward the phone and he contemplated what to do.

He could very easily tell Naruto the truth – he hadn't been _spying_ really; it was his job to respond to the texts he received while on the clock.

But it wasn't his job to browse through old, personal messages and he had a vague idea that Naruto would inquire if Haku had resolved to temptation and explored a little after reading it. It was a suspicious text and he knew he'd never get away with lying about it. The voice in his head was already stuttering over excuses that sounded horribly un-buyable; he'd never be able to convincingly deliver any of them.

So on an impulse of insecurity, he deleted the message and returned to the home page, relief and guilt twisting at the pit of his stomach to form an odd sort of unease. He wasn't sure he'd made the right choice but then again, his life consisted of that same vague idea multiple times daily. He was far too used to it to let it bother him for long.

When eleven arrived, Naruto pulled the plug to the sink filled with soapy water and untied his apron before slinging it back onto the hook it rested on when he wasn't wearing it.

"Haku, let's _ditch!_" he called as he made his way toward the area where the bar parted and he was able to exit the kitchen into the lobby where Juugo still stood at the bar.

"Juugo? You still working?" he asked when he realized he'd been there before they got here and he didn't look ready to leave.

"I'm pulling a double to cover Suigetsu."

"Why?"

"He's sick."

"He's just lazy," Naruto accused with a smirk before turning and leaving Haku alone at the bar as he headed for the door.

"Bye Juugo," the brunette offered shyly before sliding off the barstool and following after Naruto as he headed through the diner exit.

"Later, Haku, bye Naruto!"

Naruto waved over his shoulder as he pushed the glass door open, the crisp, night air biting at the exposed skin across his face and hands. It didn't help that his shirt was still damp from doing dishes for seven and a half hours.

"It's cold tonight!" Naruto exclaimed as they hurried down the block toward Gaara's apartment complex, "I should have made Gaara come pick us up," he joked with a smile as they crossed the street, quickly entering the rundown building at the corner of the intersection.

"He would have done it if you asked. I think Gaara takes everything a little seriously," Haku added with a hint of something that sounded unsure.

Naruto glanced over at him as they climbed the stairwell to the third story, footfall echoing back around them.

"You're probably right," he breathed as his lips curved up in mirth.

They arrived at the third story landing and made their way toward the second door on the left, knocking softly when they arrived just before it.

Their red haired companion opened the door and let it swing open wide enough to grant them entrance and both proceeded through the threshold with a smile and a wave in greeting before Gaara shut the door behind them.

It wasn't long before they were settled into the living room where Kankuro resided as well. Temari wasn't around.

"She's been working and we haven't heard from her in a while," Gaara explained in a low tone, earning an apologetic and solemnly passive stare in reply; Naruto understood how that felt. Temari was in the same business as his mother. There were times she disappeared for days and he wasn't sure he'd ever see her again.

"Do you want to smoke?"

Naruto glanced up to see Gaara holding up a cleanly rolled blunt.

"How can I say no?" Naruto asked back with a playful smile, "But we can't stay long – new shipment this morning so Kyuubi's probably gonna make me weigh it out."

It didn't matter if it was half an hour or half a day – Gaara cherished every minute he spent with Naruto. Naruto was a lot like the embodiment of Gaara's stability; there was very little that Gaara wouldn't do for him. Naruto was the person who brought him back from a dark place in his life. He was positive he'd of gone insane far long ago where it not for him. He was probably just about the only person in this world he felt he could relate to.

Broken people flocked to Naruto and Naruto sheltered them relentlessly with his strong personality and unwavering confidence in the solution to every problem. At least that's what Gaara assumed from what he saw; Naruto never failed to change each life he touched and none of them could help but marvel at it.

It felt like very little time passed as the apartment hazed over with a floating smoke before Naruto was pulling out his phone, features irritated as he stared at the name on the caller ID.

"_What?_" he snapped when he answered the phone. His tone caught every eye in the room and the attention was solely on him; he only spoke to one person with a voice filled with that much contempt.

"No, fuck off," he continued incredulously before his features dropped slightly as he listened to the words coming through the speaker that no one else could hear, "Ok _fine!_ I'll be there in a minute, _fuck!_"

He reared back and Haku turned swiftly, grabbing Naruto's wrist before he could throw the phone across the room.

"Naruto, don't, you need your phone," Haku reminded as he pushed himself up onto his knees and reached up to press the end-call button at the bottom of the phone.

Naruto relaxed because he knew Haku was right and _thank god_ Haku was quick enough to stop him from doing something incredibly stupid. He shot Haku an apologetic look.

"We have to go," he whispered in a repentant tone, "Kyuubi's being a complete asshole, but what's new?" he asked sarcastically as he stood from the couch, Haku following suit, eyes glazed with regret that their visit was over already, "We'll see you at school tomorrow Gaara."

"Wait," he requested as he, too, stood from him position on the couch to follow them toward the front door, "Do you want me to drive you home?"

"No Gaara!" Naruto laughed as he turned slightly to gaze humorously at him, "It's literally down the street."

"Yeah, down the street with the highest crime rate in the city," Gaara reminded easily.

"I appreciate the statistic you must have seen on the news last night, but we kind of _are_ the crime, and you too Gaara. I'm not too worried about it," he assured as he pulled the door open, letting himself and Haku out.

With one last wave, they disappeared into the shadows of the stairwell and were out of sight.

Their walk was silent until they reached the street and Naruto hummed as he remembered something.

"We have a Calculus test tomorrow," he mused softly, his voice tired at the reminder.

"_You_ have a Calculus test tomorrow. I'm not in Calculus yet. I'm still in Algebra," Haku corrected as he shot the blonde an affectionate look. Haku was barely passing Algebra One and it was his second year taking it. If he was lucky, he'd pass Algebra, take Geometry next year and finish off his senior year with Algebra Two and leave Calculus for the kids planning on college.

The kids like Naruto – Naruto took Algebra One when he was in seventh grade and he kicked that class in the ass easily. If Haku could describe it any way, he would say Naruto was pretty fucking good with numbers and he was extremely positive Naruto didn't really understand just how good he really was.

Haku was pretty sure Naruto was on a different level in general.

"Naruto, what's it like being smart?"

Naruto shot him an odd look and Haku assumed it was because Naruto didn't consider himself smart at all.

"I'm not that smart. I'm just good at taking tests," he rationalized easily.

Haku stared back, features vaguely skeptical. Naruto was vastly generalizing the term 'good at taking tests'. He had seen Naruto spit out numbers that didn't even sound possible to remember let alone find without a calculator – numbers that had such a lengthy fraction of a whole number it had Haku's head spinning.

"Unfortunately that doesn't do much for you if you're never at school to take the tests. I'm fucked if I do all of this just to fail out of high school."

He sounded the epiphany of determined and Haku wondered how he was able to set his sights on such an impossibly far away thing such as college. Haku assumed it was his superior intelligence that kept pushing him forward – kept finding a way through the maze of problems littering his life on a daily basis.

No one else really believed Naruto was smart enough to make something of his life – even his mother was blind to it; not because she thought Naruto was dim, but because she just wasn't around, or aware enough when she was to really realize the things coming out of Naruto's mouth.

But Haku – Haku knew Naruto was special. Naruto was going to change the world someday. He promised Haku so himself; facing the world's doubt only drove him toward proving them wrong harder.

"You'll figure out a way to get your grade up," Haku reassured easily – _easily_ because it was what he honestly believed. Naruto smiled warmly at him, the same one that made Haku feel inferior in comparison.

"You're probably right."

They had arrived at the door on the first floor of the low income apartment complex he lived in and Naruto shoved his key into the first lock, followed by the second, and finally the third. It was done in a quick succession that came with years of doing it.

"Well look who decided to come home," Kyuubi greeted sarcastically as he placed a generous bag of powder at the small table in the corner of the room Naruto usually sat at to bag drugs. It would take him several hours at least and it was already close to midnight.

He sighed in resignation as he made his way into the living space, dropping his backpack at the chair by his table and taking a seat as he rolled up his sleeves.

The drug before him was coke – he wasn't allowed to sell it; but he was allowed to bag it, and that alone was a mistake he wouldn't dare pass on taking advantage of. Kyuubi made few mistakes and he wouldn't wave goodbye as an opportunity like this passed him by.

Haku floated toward Zabuza's side and he watched as the man zipped shut the small bag in his hands, eyes steadfast on the powder lining the bottom before tossing it into the pile of bags littering the table. He'd just finished weighing out his portion and Naruto felt his irritation spike at seeing Kyuubi sit down at the couch in his spot near the man; his pile hadn't even been touched and that meant Naruto would have to stay awake with him for the next several hours. He was hoping they'd be done and ready to disappear for the rest of the night, do coke, fuck women, and come home sometime after six just to ignore him and pass out for the rest of the day.

But they looked comfortable to hang around for the entire night and Naruto kind of wanted to smack his head against the wall next to him until he was unconscious.

He grabbed the abandoned credit card left there from the last time Kyuubi made him weigh out drugs. He remembered when he first got the small plastic rectangle – the bank sent it to his mom in the mail with directions on how to activate it.

What a stupid thing to do; his mother would have maxed it out and dodged the collections agencies in a hot minute.

He took it instead just to stop it before it happened; he was already scrambling to pay off everything else. Plus, the card was easily one of the easiest ways to sort out powdered drugs.

Minutes dragged by slowly as he weighed out the powder, gram by gram, before packing the ten bags he'd finished filling together and wrapping a rubber band tautly around them until they were compacted into a small square of a thousand dollars' worth of drugs bundled and ready to sell.

"You know," Kyuubi began as he held up two bags of powder, one in each hand, "1 gram of coke looks a lot like .95 grams of coke."

Naruto shot him a sidelong glance because that statement was far too dangerous to outright ignore. When Kyuubi said something as rhetorical as that, it usually meant he had something to say. He was sure the other occupants of the room didn't like the idea of dealing those stiffed bags. It wasn't something they could get away with for long – it would have to be something they did spontaneously and very sparsely to the same person in very spread out succession – a lot like what Naruto did when he was stealing drugs from Kyuubi.

"How much money would we make off something like that?" Kyuubi asked toward the general populace of the apartment.

_Four-thousand, nine-hundred and twenty-eight dollars per kilo_.

But Naruto kept the answer to himself because he didn't care to help Kyuubi out.

The spider-like man in his kitchen that had been around as long as Zabuza struggled to figure out how to create the problem that would give him the solution to what Kyuubi wanted to know. His name was Kidomaru and he was fairly dim. He leaned over toward his partner and nudged the white haired man boldly. His partner was Kimimaro – Kimimaro was not dim, probably the furthest away from it out of the adults in the room.

Haku doubted he was smarter than Naruto but Naruto refused to accept entering judgment against a cokehead – to him, it wasn't fair comparing the two. Drugs made people fucking stupid; he'd win on principle. He remembered that had made Haku laugh and he felt a fond surge toward his dark haired companion across the room.

"How many grams are in a kilo? Nine-hundred and eighty?" he asked aloud as he pulled out his phone and tapped at the calculator application within it.

_Wrong_, Naruto thought to himself as he glared toward the wall as his hands paused for a moment. He was slightly incredulous at the fact that a man who dealt with as many drugs as Kidomaru did, _didn't_ know how many grams were in a kilo.

"So what would I do, just subtract .05 from 1?" he continued on, making Naruto fear for his own intelligence, "Oh wait, no. I should multiply .05 times 980."

There was still a lot of error as he continued to painfully work out the problem before coming to a poorly estimated four-thousand, nine-hundred.

That seemed like enough to Kyuubi.

"Let's do it. We'll do it for one kilo every third shipment."

Naruto shook his head slightly but didn't say anything because his opinion didn't matter anyway.

Three swift and solid but urgent knocks resounded from the hallway's side of the door and Kimimaro gazed through the knothole to see who it was. When his features remained calm as he unlocked the door, the rest of the room remained calm because recognition was somewhat safe – in a very general yet specific instance.

"Fuck you!" the person nearly yelled as he stumbled into the apartment, eyes finding Kyuubi instantly, "Why'd you fuck with Gato?" he asked, eyes wide with unease, "I almost just got shot!"

"Actually that was me," Zabuza interrupted as he leaned back against the couch, arms crossing over his chest, "His complete disrespect pissed me off so he lost a couple pounds of coke for it."

"You killed someone, one of his guys. He's _seriously_ out to take one of ours! I got clipped!" he explained urgently as he turned to show his upper arm to the man; he had a nasty little gash almost at the tip of his shoulder where a bullet grazed through a good amount of skin.

"Holy shit," Naruto breathed as he stood from his chair and approached the older boy, eyes steadfast on the freely bleeding wound, "Fuck this, I'm not risking my life just to help you sell drugs," Naruto snapped as he turned to glare heatedly at Kyuubi who looked irritated.

"Neither am I – it's not so risky for you guys. It's risky for _us_ – the people on the street! I don't want–"

"Suigetsu! Will you _shut up_ for a minute?" Kyuubi interrupted, the rising tension in the room peaking at the silence that followed.

Suigetsu was the person who bought huge amounts from them and sold it to all the dealers Kyuubi approved in the areas he approved – dealers like him and Haku.

Suigetsu sold crack like Naruto, only Naruto dealt to users and Suigetsu dealt to dealers like him; Naruto made more money – nothing like what Kyuubi made, not even close – but selling in bigger amounts like Suigetsu did, didn't earn him much. It was less work, and Suigetsu probably spent just a few hours a week on dealing for an ok amount of money, but, unless you were Kyuubi, you couldn't pull of sitting around most days and make money telling people what to do: few people involved in drugs ever made as much as him.

The only way for someone like Suigetsu or Naruto to make money, was to sell every fraction of a gram alone and at the absolute maximum people would buy it at, because after that, the buyer got a deal, and the customers that _could_, bought in bigger amounts to save a little money; the more a person bought at a time, the more a person saved. So Naruto mostly sold ten and five sacks and he never gave anyone a deal.

Of course, there was a lot more risk getting caught the more a person dealt too, but Naruto needed money more than he had the time to spare on worrying about it; his lifestyle was _built_ on risks.

Kyuubi didn't like Suigetsu for some reason – he didn't seem to trust him, so he didn't let him anywhere near coke. Probably because he seemed more genuine, like Naruto; and that was probably why Naruto _did_ like Suigetsu. So he was stuck dealing with crackheads like Naruto was.

Naruto and Haku were the only street dealers that actually came here because of their correlation between Kyuubi and Zabuza; not that Naruto thought _that_ was anything worth bragging about. Other dealers like Naruto and Haku didn't even know where this apartment was. Naruto himself _knew_ didn't know much about Kyuubi's position and he had no idea how many other apartments just like this one he had scattered throughout the city. All he knew was that there was a warehouse in an abandoned part of town that he'd never been inside of and he wondered just how much Cocaine Kyuubi put on the streets.

He bet a good amount that there was a lot more moved in and out of that warehouse than this apartment.

"Now," the man continued in a dangerous tone as he stared rigidly at Naruto, "Just to recap, yes, both of you will still be dealing. You can stop bitching about Gato because we're fixing that problem. Actually, since we're on the topic, Haku," he addressed, earning the alert and uneasy attention of the quiet teen in the corner of the room, hiding mostly in Zabuza's shadow, "You're making the drop off."

"That's stupid!" Naruto objected immediately as he turned to face Kyuubi more fully, "I'll do it, Haku doesn't need to."

"No, Haku will do it. It was Zabuza's fuck up so Haku will do it," Kyuubi reinforced with a dangerous tone. Zabuza looked impassive and that pissed Naruto off, "I'll correspond with Gato and find out where he wants to pick it up."

"You say that easily because it's not your life you're gambling with!" Naruto yelled before turning toward Suigetsu, "_That_ is no joke, you need stitches."

"Well while you're out," Kyuubi began as he pointed toward the supply boxed and ready for the street, "Take that and get the rats living in the gutter of every street corner to make me some fucking money."

The command seemed to spark a train of thought because the blue haired teen reached for something in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Speaking of which," he mumbled before dumping a wad of cash onto the table, careful not to disturb the drugs being sorted out atop it. It was thick, too thick to fold, and it was mostly hundred dollar bills.

"There's twelve kilos in those crates," Kyuubi informed, gaze back on the TV as he lit a cigarette.

That was his dismissal and Naruto shook his head in disbelief. Suigetsu had just been shot and Kyuubi was shoving him out the door, content to get him back to work as soon as possible.

Suigetsu came around pretty often – he usually didn't go longer than a week without coming back, and it felt like an incredibly short amount of time to move almost twenty-seven pounds of crack throughout the city and Naruto vaguely wondered just how many dealers Suigetsu was orchestrating. Their cartel was getting big and that frightened Naruto because he was dangerously close to running out of time.

Naruto shook himself from his reverie when Suigetsu turned and reached down to pick up the top crate.

"I got it," the blonde assured as he grabbed the box, eyes darting to the wound on the young adult's shoulder. Suigetsu shot him a grateful look as he followed him into the hallway and out toward the parking lot.

"Thanks," he breathed genuinely as he popped the trunk, eyes shifting over the parking lot and behind his back quickly. Naruto caught the swift sweep of his eyes and he felt a surge of sympathy for the person standing behind him. Suigetsu was visibly jumpy and Naruto didn't blame him at all for being gun shy. Naruto had never been shot but he didn't think it was highly impossible to happen some day in the lifestyle he was living in and from what he'd seen, gunshot wounds hurt like hell.

He set the box down and turned toward the blue haired teen as he walked back toward the path to the hallway leading to his apartment.

"Be right back."

After a few more trips, the trunk was shut and Naruto wiped his hands together at a job well done.

"All set," he deemed with a smile while Suigetsu shot him a complicated look.

"You shouldn't be involved in drugs."

The statement caught him off guard because as long as he'd known Suigetsu, he'd never once heard him speak ill against the lifestyle of a drug dealer. It must have been the near death experience getting to his head.

"Neither should you," he countered as he gestured toward his injury, "No one should be. Really, go to the ER."

Suigetsu nodded in acknowledgement and they parted with an exchange of goodbye's and Naruto turned and left without another word as he headed back for the apartment. Suigetsu didn't follow and he hadn't expected him to; why return when he had everything he needed?

The men usually littering his apartment filed out of his front door and he glared at each of them in turn as he passed them in the hall and giving Haku a soft 'later' before his disdainful eyes met Kyuubi's as he reentered the apartment, the door shut and locked behind him.

He let the air in his lungs out slowly before making his way back over to his table; it was just him and Kyuubi now – oh, and his mother in the other room in a highly drug induced 'sleep' – or the closest thing to it.

"Did you have a _long_, _taxing_ day being everyone's friendly neighborhood drug dealer? Need a break from the guys?" Naruto asked sarcastically as he scooted himself closer to the table, returning his attention to the drugs before him.

"Been smoking weed, Naruto?" Kyuubi called out while Naruto ignored him, eyes steadfast on the powder on the table before him. Naruto always had a far more sarcastic attitude when he was high and Kyuubi could pick it out every once and a while, "You know, doing drugs is bad," the man mocked as he continued to attempt to catch his attention from his place on the couch.

"Pot is hardly a drug," the blonde reminded in an irritated tone before glancing up, eyes resting on the glass of liquor in the man's hand.

"But drugs make you stupid you know," Kyuubi continued when Naruto's gaze dropped back down to the drugs on the table. He only said it because Naruto told him so all the time – it was his most infuriating way of insulting Kyuubi and Kyuubi knew he was stirring the irritation brewing behind that mask of indifference he worked so hard to keep up. It didn't help that Naruto was practically wrists deep in coke right now.

"Mainlining smack makes you stupid," the blonde corrected disinterestedly as he weighed out a gram of the soft powder before opening a small zip from the pile at the right side of the table and tipping the small pile of drugs on the scale into the bag and sealing it shut.

Kyuubi stood from his position on the couch and headed toward the hallway, eyes steadfast on the blonde. Naruto reluctantly looked up when he froze under the entryway.

"If I wake up and not all of this is bagged, you can _mainline_ whatever's left," the man promised in a dangerous tone. It wasn't an invitation to dip into the stash – it was a threat.

Naruto gazed back unimpressed before the man disappeared down the hallway toward his mother's room; it's not like Kyuubi didn't hand him a death threat any time he could throw one in. The initial wow factor had worn off. He wasn't dead yet and it'd been almost seven years since Kyuubi slithered into his life. He assumed this was no different.

But that didn't mean he shouldn't take his threat seriously. He knew he _had_ to finish this before morning if he didn't want to have the shit kicked out of him.

He glanced over at Kyuubi's pile and shut his eyes as he breathed in slowly to reign in his frustration. Kyuubi hadn't even started – he'd just been fucking around with making a design in the powder. It would take him all night to finish this and he had an idea that Kyuubi knew that.

With a soft sigh, he reached for his backpack under his chair and grabbed his Calculus book, opening it to the page he was pretty sure they were studying last time he was in class before propping it at the other side of the table. He reached back down a second time for a bottle of pills, unscrewed the lid on the orange bottle, and fished out a capsule before throwing it back.

It wouldn't be long before all his synapses were firing and then he'd finish in time for school, in time to take another pill so that he could stay awake – so that he could focus and take the math test on the unit he was about to teach himself.

He wouldn't have to abuse Adderall if it wasn't for all this shit. If he could just sleep, he could do it without the drugs.

But he couldn't, so he compensated with pharmaceuticals and he wasn't complaining because at least he had access to helpful drugs; he would do anything to help his mother have to work less.

He pulled out a cigarette to hold him over until the pill dissolved in his stomach and lit it with a soft drag into his mouth before parting his lips and releasing the smoke before it could slip into his lungs. The end of cigarette dulled to a soft glow and he knew it was well lit so he popped it back into his mouth, hitting it again, this time with his lungs, and he felt himself relax as he reached for the pile of drugs before him, smoke escaping through his partly closed lips, cigarette balancing at a corner of his mouth.

And somehow, he wondered what Sasuke was doing.

oOo

Let me know what you think. I was super nervous about posting this for several reasons. There are probably still a lot of typos and errors and I'm working on weeding through them this week (let me know if you spot one), but I haven't looked it over much so lend me some patience :)

See you next Monday!


	2. Chapter 2: Willing to

**Chapter Two: Willing to–**

Haku was many things, but confident wasn't one of them. He had always been a shy, introverted, and non-confrontational being, even when his mother was alive. They were homeless when she was; he had never had a home until his mother died when he was seven and Zabuza took him in.

Zabuza was this person that Haku just couldn't analyze no matter how hard he tried. Nothing he could think up could help him dissect Zabuza's persona.

In public, and especially around Kyuubi, Zabuza was distant and cold and even sometimes _mean_; but when it was the two of them at the apartment, everything else disappeared. That tense air, the unease built up throughout the day – all of it was gone because somehow, Haku might even go as far as to say that they completed each other.

Haku didn't understand it and he was way too afraid of it to try and explain it to Naruto. Naruto was positive Haku's lack of complete distain in Zabuza was alarming and he had already admitted to being completely unable to empathize with it at all in the past. Not that Haku blamed Naruto for that; Zabuza hurt Naruto a lot. But it was only ever because Kyuubi expected him to and he couldn't risk Kyuubi getting suspicious of him because those were untreaded waters and he didn't know what kinds of things might lurk beneath.

So Haku kept it to himself because Zabuza was possibly worth it and since he wasn't quite sure yet, he wanted to play out all his possibilities.

He grabbed his backpack and headed for his bedroom door; he was ready for school so he went to meet Zabuza in the living room.

The tall man stood near the front door and turned at the sound of Haku approaching. He placed an affectionate hand on his shoulder and Haku felt his cheeks burn at the contact. He prayed it wasn't completely obvious.

"You'll do fine, Haku. I'm always proud of you," the man assured gently, earning a deeper flush to his skin that Haku knew he wasn't capable of hiding.

They exited the apartment, and Haku could almost _see_ the wall rise up between him and Zabuza.

When they got to the car, he sat in the back seat.

oOo

"_Shit, shit, shit_," Naruto breathed as he finished zipping up the last bit of drugs remaining from the previous night before he scooped a small sectioned-off pile of white powder off the surface of the table and into a thin zip-lock bag which he sealed shut and set down atop his open calculus book – it held about twice the amount of what he'd been filling small zips with all night; this was the small portion he stole from Kyuubi tonight and it would go toward putting him away for a really long time.

His eyes shifted to the clock in the kitchen as he brushed off his hands gently while rising from his chair.

It was 9:30. He had thirty-five minutes to get to school and take his test.

He hurried to the kitchen and washed his hands vigorously. He didn't want to show up to school late, _and_ smelling like coke; one of those scenarios was bad enough.

Although – to be fair – it wasn't the coke they'd be smelling; it was the Novacaine and whatever other chemicals it was cut with that they'd smell. But everyone just basically associated the two as one thing anyway. His features curled at the smell from the faucet; sometimes water made coke smell horrible and sometimes it didn't. But right now it did and he hated it.

His fingers fumbled over the faucet and he knew he needed to take more Adderall because he was starting to feel incredibly fatigued.

But he hurried to his room and tried to ignore it, grabbing the small bag of coke off his book as he passed the table. His bookcase sectioned off in six symmetrical squares in two rows of three and he kneeled down before the first square on the bottom row, the wall to his left and the expanse of his room to his right. He reached for the books and binders filling the shelving and pulled out a handful, leaving an empty section a little bigger than his hand as he reached behind them and grabbed a sandwich size zip lock from the shadows behind the books.

It was very full and Naruto quickly added what he had to what was in the larger bag and he smiled in appreciation. He'd spent almost two years taking a gram or two here or there between shipments – always in such small increments that it was impossible to detect. Kyuubi was going to be _fucking_ sidelined when he discovered what Naruto was saving it up for.

He returned the shelving to its previous arrangement before standing and returning to the kitchen to shut his book and slip it into his backpack as he pulled out a small orange tablet with the letters AD on one side and the number thirty on the other, a line down the middle between the three and the zero and two small dashes, one before the three and one after the zero – measurements for different dosages that a doctor would probably discuss with a patient being prescribed it.

Naruto wasn't prescribed Adderall and he actually didn't have ADHD, but a fake pad of prescription papers might have said differently and so might the four different pharmacies where he used those fake prescriptions.

One dry swallow later and he was picking up his bag to leave for school.

By the time he was entering the front office, he felt as if he might fall over, but he knew if he just gave the Adderall another fifteen or twenty minutes, he'd be perfectly rejuvenated and that timed down seamlessly to his test in that amount of time.

They didn't ask why he was late, or chastise him for it because they'd pretty much given up on the kids here and that was fine with Naruto. They just handed him his late slip and a bright pink detention slip which he groaned over as he took it from the receptionist with a hint of attitude.

Whatever, he would just ditch it.

He caught the last eighteen minutes of his English class before he headed toward his Calculus classroom. A lot of people stopped him along the way and they exchanged very brief words and a precise shake of the hands that ended with an exchange of goods in a subtle enough way that it wasn't easy to spot in a crowded hallway.

By the time he reached his classroom, he was seventy dollars richer than just minutes ago – or…_Kyuubi_ was.

When he entered his classroom, he could feel the unease filling the air and he knew everyone was nervous about this test.

"Hey there, mutha fucka, thanks for joining us today," the tall, man at the front of the classroom greeted as Naruto shot him a humorous look, "You sure you're ready for today's test?" he asked, earning a somewhat suspicious look out of the blonde, "You missed some pretty important lessons this week."

"No I got this," Naruto assured, the determination in his tone just daring him to bring it on. The class gazed at him skeptically and he glared back inquisitively.

"What?" he snapped, shaking several gazes away by just his tone. He didn't particularly like being in this class – he was the youngest one, the only sophomore in a room of juniors and seniors and he _still_ intimidated _all_ of them. He got the impression that they didn't think he was very smart, regardless of the fact that he was in such an advanced class at such a young age; either that or they just really hated him for it. But they all knew his reputation and he hadn't lost a fight – at least not at school – so none of them spoke up.

Plus, they all knew what he did to make money.

Bee shrugged slightly before he started handing out the test and Naruto fidgeted slightly, tapping his eraser softly against his desk as he waited for his test.

Perfect: he could have said it aloud. Everything he studied was on here and he breezed through it with ease because the whole world was a sharp, vivid place of black and white and the grey he created – just the paper before him – and he swore he could feel the graphite scrape off his pencil onto the paper beneath his fingers. He earned a few jealous glares when he turned in his test fifteen minutes later and Bee stared at him in disbelief for a moment, eyes steadfast on him as he returned to his seat with nothing to do to kill the time.

The man grabbed the paper and turned it right side up as he began to correct it, just to see if Naruto had really just done that.

Naruto didn't need to watch him correct it. He nailed it and he knew it. He concentrated on not fidgeting like he so badly wanted to and he wished he had something he could pour his concentration into.

The class dragged toward the end of the period and a very good portion of the class hadn't turned its test in yet when the bell rang. The students already finished and packed, stood and grabbed their things.

"Naruto, could you please stay after class?" Bee asked over the soft hum of the class as it exited the classroom in steady groups. Naruto sighed as he sat back down heavily, earning several dirty smirks from classmates that felt he deserved it.

When the last student exited and the door shut behind her, Bee crossed his arms over his chest and he gazed skeptically at Naruto who looked back uncertainly; it looked like he was in trouble and he shouldn't be in trouble.

"You cheated."

"No I didn't!" Naruto defended as he stood abruptly, "Who would I have cheated off? I finished first!"

"You had the answers then before class," Bee reasoned as he leaned back in the chair at his desk.

But even he seemed unsure of how he'd of gotten ahold of them and Naruto could hear the uncertainty thick as mist.

"I didn't and you know I didn't. I didn't cheat – _I didn't!_ I'm not–"

But he didn't finish because it would be lying to say he wasn't a cheater – but he was also a liar, so he shouldn't have felt conflicted over lying about being a cheater.

Cheating and lying was a lot of what he based his life around. He did those things on very many occasions daily to other cheaters and liars.

But he'd never cheated in school because he never needed to and it was frustrating to be accused of having done so.

"Then why isn't there any work on your test?" Bee continued as he glanced down at the test still lying on his desk.

He did it in his head; it was the same thing he'd been trying to explain since very early in school – teachers usually hated that he could do math that they couldn't do without a calculator.

And usually, whenever he _did_ try and explain that he'd figured out the square root of thirteen or the cosine of seven in his head, no one really believed him; his patience was wearing thin.

"Fine! I cheated!" he caved as he threw his arms up halfway in defeat before grabbing his backpack and slipping it on quickly as he made his way toward the classroom door, "That's all you want to hear anyway."

Bee watched him go with a hint of guilt lining his features; somehow he wasn't really sure if Naruto cheated or not anymore.

Naruto didn't really consider himself _smart_, but he knew he wasn't stupid and he was growing tired of people treating him like he was. He was in fucking _Calculus_ as a sophomore! That should count for something at least.

_Haku, meet me in the bathroom_.

He slid his phone shut as he slipped it into his pocket as he headed toward the bathroom to wait.

He didn't have to wait long. Haku pushed his way through the swinging door not even minutes later and he approached Naruto immediately.

"What's up?" he asked uneasily, the worry clear in his tone.

"Give me everything you have," Naruto instructed as he gestured toward Haku's pockets, "I'm ditching. I'll sell it so you don't have to."

Haku gazed at him for a long moment and made no move to cooperate.

"Is something wrong Naruto?" he asked earning an impatient noise from the blonde before him.

"No! Just hurry it up while no one else is in here!" he instructed urgently enough to coerce Haku into obeying.

"But why are you ditching?" Haku pressed as he handed bundle after bundle over somewhat hesitantly.

"Because none of my teachers want to take me seriously. I'm only wasting my time right now. I need to clear my head and approach this differently," he mused as Haku's stash went directly into his backpack. Ok, maybe he was generalizing a little bit by pluralizing teacher, but he was angry so it was difficult to stay rational.

"What happened?"

"I nailed my Calculus test and my teacher's convinced I cheated – as if it's impossible to even consider that I could teach myself anything."

His tone was particularly bitter as he zipped up his bag before slinging it back over his unhooked arm.

Haku gazed regretfully at him for a quiet moment and Naruto realized immediately that something was on his mind.

"Come over after school. I don't have to work and you don't have to sell. We can just hang out, like we used to."

The motivation of something to look forward to eased a smile onto Haku's face and Naruto returned it without difficulty.

"Ok."

Naruto's smile widened upon verbal approval of his request and he placed an affectionate hand on Haku's shoulder as he swept past him toward the exit to the restroom.

"See you after three."

The door swung shut behind him and Haku turned toward the hall of stall walls when he heard a urinal flush and he watched as Uchiha Sasuke exited the furthest stall; he only remembered his name because Naruto seemed to hate him on a more profound level than Haku thought capable.

Sasuke's dark eyes kept steadfast with Haku's as he made his way toward the sink and he looked irritatingly unimpressed by what they both knew he overheard.

oOo

Naruto liked ditching because school hours were when the streets were emptiest and that was when he worked best. School wasn't even out and he was way ahead; his mother wouldn't have to work – he made way more than enough.

But he also hated ditching because if he could have one thing, he wished he could get an education so he could get the fuck out of this lifestyle; it was just kind of impossible to do when all the adults around him were either busy dragging him down or stepping on his fingers as he desperately tried to hang on to the edge of the cliff he felt like he was dangling over.

"Oi! Naruto!"

He turned at the sound of his name because the voice was both familiar and friendly and usually it wasn't both of those things combined.

He turned in time to see Suigetsu cross the street hastily to catch up with him and he waited in a form of acknowledgement.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" the young man asked as he fell into step next to the boy who shot him a skeptical look.

"Yeah," he confirmed facetiously, eyes shifting away in irritation, "But it's not worth going into."

"I bet it is," Suigetsu assured as he glanced up the street toward the diner Naruto worked at and gestured for them to go inside. Naruto followed reluctantly because Suigetsu was older than him and in a weird way that didn't make sense, Naruto kind of liked him – he was somehow one of those people he didn't feel obligated to put up a front for. He didn't even feel that way with Haku and Haku was his best friend – well, besides Sasuke, but Sasuke didn't really count right now.

Suigetsu was kind of the adult-type figure that Naruto sought for in silence; even though Suigetsu wasn't really _much_ of an adult. He was only a few years older than Naruto himself.

"Hey Juugo," Naruto began as the tall man behind the bar turned to face them in greeting, "_What_–?"

"Juugo, what the hell?" Suigetsu asked simultaneously while Naruto slammed his palms onto the bar counter as he pushed himself up in an attempt to get shoulder-level with his orange haired coworker. Suigetsu watched in subtle affection as Naruto hooked his heels onto the railing around the barstool beneath him, giving him an extra two and a half inches as he strained to see something that had his face bright with something foreign – something very childish and far too fitting for Naruto's features.

"Woh! Juugo!" he exclaimed as he reached out to pet the bird perched on his shoulder – he didn't know what kind it was, small and cute; that was his best description, "I'm positive this is a health code violation."

The bird shied away from his hand and he pulled back.

"Ah, it hates me," he laughed as he let his hand fall back to his side in compliance – as if Naruto was used to it.

"Birds are shy," Juugo defended as he glanced at the bird from the corner of his vision, "You have to offer companionship," he continued as he held out a finger for the bird to step onto, "before it can accept."

The bird hopped onto his hand with a colorful chirp and Naruto smiled in fascination. Juugo motioned for him to put his hand up like his and Naruto didn't hesitate to do so. The bird shifted on Juugo's finger for a long moment, sliding back and forth as it chirped uncertainly, before sticking a single leg out to wrap around his finger as if to test the waters.

Naruto hummed in glee, smiling widely when the small animal unfolded its wings to flap them experimentally as it scooted fully onto his finger.

"You can take him with you if you want," Juugo offered as he filled two glasses with ice and two different sodas.

"Really?" Naruto asked with a smile in his tone as he pet the small creature in his hands with the back of his index finger gently enough not to scare or hurt it.

"Yeah, can you set him free on your way out? I think he's getting bored."

"Ok!" Naruto agreed easily as he turned toward the end of the bar distractedly, sitting at the furthest barstool with eyes trained on his new companion. The bird was pecking affectionately at his fingers by now and Juugo smiled a little at how quickly Naruto could make another existence fall in love with his own.

It was weird now that he thought about it. A good majority of the people who loved Naruto most, hated him to begin with.

"Here you go," Juugo offered under his breath as he set the glasses down on the bar, Sprite for Naruto and Coke for Suigetsu.

"So, down to business," Suigetsu reminded as they settled into their spot at the bar, sodas fizzing softly on the bar's surface.

Juugo looked interested at the conversation starter and leaned his elbows on the counter to get comfortable – neither of them really cared; Juugo's lips were tighter than anyone else they knew. He heard everything and spoke of nothing. Juugo listened.

Naruto shot Suigetsu a wary and irritated look but Suigetsu's determination refused to sway even a fraction of an inch.

"I know too many assholes," the blonde began in a vexed tone.

"I'm sure your asshole – I'm sorry, your _teacher_ is just trying to help," Suigetsu joked, earning a chorus of laughter from the blonde that hit him like music – it was good to hear Naruto laugh because it was almost like actually being happy and it was a little addictive. He didn't know how Naruto did it but he smiled a little bit nonetheless, "But in all seriousness, your teacher was probably just trying to help with – whatever it was that happened. What happened by the way?"

Naruto shot the wall to his left a sarcastic look and he looked as if he'd rather just not talk about it.

"My calculus teacher just thinks I'm stupid. He thinks I cheated on my test today – I finished _first!_ I didn't cheat," he explained in an irritated tone.

"Woah, you're in calculus? Aren't you like…fifteen?"

"Fuck off!" Naruto defended, earning an indigent ruffle of the feathers on the bird's back, "Why does it matter how old I am?"

"Well that's why your teacher thinks you're a cheater. I didn't take calculus until college."

"That sounds as if it should be the reason he should believe me when I say I can do the work in my head, not the reason to feel suspicious of me."

"Maybe," Suigetsu agreed before they fell into a comfortable silence. But Naruto soon broke it when he realized something somewhat alarming.

"Hang on, you went to college?" Naruto asked, eyes subtly suspicious when Suigetsu looked somewhat taken aback.

"I mean if I would have gone I would have taken Calculus my first year," he corrected easily. It was either an easy lie or the truth and Naruto wasn't sure which so he didn't put it away in his mind as either.

Suigetsu left him wondering sometimes.

"I'm sure your teacher will figure out just how smart you are – give fate a chance to settle in; things always have a way of working themselves out."

Naruto gazed at Juugo for a long moment but didn't reply verbally as he shifted his gaze back to the bird in his hands.

They were kind words and Naruto didn't want to act ungrateful by saying something bratty…but he didn't really believe in fate or the sway of the universe or any of that. No destiny he'd ever heard of could lift the soda on the counter to his lips; if he wanted it, he'd have to grab it himself. He was pretty sure the same principle applied to the rest of the world. The only way to get somewhere was to do everything within his power to make it happen. His future rested in his own hands and he believed that without a single waver of doubt.

Of course, a little help with happy coincidence didn't hurt at all and maybe that's what he'd take out of it rather than feeling bad for so strongly inwardly disagreeing with Juugo.

Maybe this thing's way of working itself out was by what he chose to do next.

"What time is it?" he asked more to himself than anything as he turned to gaze at the wall behind him where he knew he'd find a clock.

"Got plans?" Suigetsu asked distractedly as he slowly stuck out a finger toward the bird in an attempt to steal the small animal while Naruto analyzed the clock.

"I might go back over to school. I could get there before my teacher leaves," he mused as he turned back around, eyes glaring suspiciously at Suigetsu when he retracted his hand quickly.

"I think you should," Juugo interrupted easily, earning Naruto's rapt attention because people hardly ever agreed with him, "It'll show your teacher that you care by taking the initiative and that's something they respect a lot."

The bird hopped over to Suigetsu's slowly approaching hand but Naruto hadn't really noticed and it was probably just good timing because Suigetsu had a feeling Naruto would have stood as abruptly as he did, palms slamming against the bar surface as he stood from his stool with or without the bird on his finger – tunnel vision was a small side effect of Naruto's determination. When he decided on something, the rest of the world disappeared until he finished whatever he set his mind on.

It was his most admirable and most annoying feature all in one, especially if you disagreed with him. Because a lot of his decisions usually ended with him getting screwed to help someone else and that alone was scary to think about because Naruto didn't ask for help from anyone _ever_. And he didn't have much to give up to begin with.

Even now, Suigetsu wondered when Naruto's last meal was – his last real meal; not whatever shit he bought with his EBT. All Suigetsu knew, was at fifteen, he wasn't interested in cooking a balanced meal for himself and Naruto probably wasn't either.

But this was for _himself_ so Suigetsu wasn't going anywhere near criticizing him.

Juugo shot Suigetsu an odd look when Naruto turned and exited the diner swiftly one goodbye too soon. His mind was completely somewhere else.

His walk to school had been far too long and far too quiet with nothing to distract his reeling mind and by the time he snuck back onto school grounds, he felt a little uneasy but way too anxious to wait so he slammed the door open as he approached the tall man at the chalkboard who stopped mid-lecture in time to catch the calculator tossed toward him.

The door shut, sealing a deafening silence as Naruto stepped back a small distance.

"Naruto, I'm teaching a class."

His eyes shifted toward the general mass of eyes upon him and he immediately glared straight toward the dark pair at the far left of the room. He didn't really give a fuck.

"Just make them leave," he suggested easily as his eyes shifted back toward the tall man several feet before him.

"I can't! That's not fair to them–"

"_I didn't fucking cheat!_"

"Hey mutha fucka check that volume – we don't want the other teachers hearing that language do we?" Bee urged quickly.

"Then hear me out and make them leave," Naruto repeated in a silent threat for the next thing ready to spill from his mouth at whatever volume he felt necessary, "And if I go down for language, I'm taking you with me."

"Well that's about it for today," Bee began as he turned to address the class that didn't look all too disappointed to be let free several minutes early at the end of the day.

Naruto shared a significant glare with Sasuke as he exited the classroom with the last few stragglers and soon, the door shut and it was quiet when only the pair of them remained.

"Ask any question, you don't even have to write it down, and I'll answer it without showing you any work – there's no one here for me to cheat off of and I can't have the answer because I don't know the question. _You_ don't even know the question yet."

Bee stared at him for a long moment, eyes filled with some sort of smiling amusement and crossed his arms over his chest.

"For the sake of seeing this and not because I think you cheated, find the square root of six-hundred ninety-three."

The meaning behind the words registered first and he smiled in disbelief before realizing he had a question to answer.

"What nearest decimal do you want it rounded to?"

Bee laughed dryly in amusement as he unfolded his arms, typing in the problem into the calculator and looking at the number given to him.

"Just round to the nearest thousandth," he instructed easily, eyes steadfast on the number on the screen.

"Twenty-six and three-hundred twenty-four thousandths."

Bee shook his head incredulously; that was pretty amazing.

"Here," Bee hummed as he leaned back several inches to grab a sheet of paper off his desk. Naruto grabbed it and his lips split into a smile at the 'A' on the top of it.

"Hah! Thanks," he breathed, eyes rooted on the letter at the top margin of the sheet in his hands.

"Don't thank me," the man laughed earning Naruto's curious gaze, "Technically, I didn't do anything. You taught it to yourself."

"Kinda," the blonde shrugged modestly; he could feel his cheeks burning a little.

"Naruto, you know, this skill you have–"

But before he could continue, the sound of the door being thrown open interrupted them and both turned to see Haku standing in the doorway, eyes incredulous and slightly crazy. Haku had his moments.

"Naruto! I just heard what you did!"

"_He-he_," the blonde grinned with a vixenishly accomplished smile as he held up his test for Haku's eyes to scan. He gazed at it with furrowed eyebrows for a long moment before it registered in his memory that this was what had upset Naruto earlier. It seemed Naruto resolved everything without him and he felt himself ease with relief; usually things didn't go this smoothly when Naruto was left to solve a confrontation on his own. Naruto was far too impulsive to think rationally and it _always_ got him in trouble.

He just plain didn't think before he spoke _ever_, and to make matters worse, he never failed to keep to his word, no matter how impossible it seemed.

"Naruto, that's great!" Haku complimented, earning a sheepish blush as he pulled the paper away from his vision as he shrugged submissively.

"It's whatever, Haku let's go," he mumbled before shooting Bee a grateful look and leaving for the exit.

Haku followed him out the classroom, watching him with intrigued and wary eyes. Naruto was so odd at times. On a pleasant day, he _seemed_ to enjoy flying under the radar; or, at least a general perspective from Haku liked to believe so. But when Naruto wanted someone's acknowledgement, all inhibition was cast aside because he didn't care what means he had to take to do what he had to do to get what he wanted.

He was only loud when he had to be – when people refused to acknowledge him; unfortunately kids in their situation were rarely acknowledged for much. The teachers knew what they did – him and Naruto; it hadn't been verbally confirmed, but everyone knew when a person was selling drugs. There were very recognizable signs and Haku was pretty sure any idiot could figure it out.

When they got back to Naruto's mom's apartment, Kyuubi was asleep on the couch and Naruto shot him a look Haku wasn't really sure how to describe; it was a mix between unconditional animosity and something more complex than that – Naruto really hated Kyuubi.

He slammed his door a little louder than necessary when they got to his room and he immediately lit a cigarette. Haku didn't even see him pull out the cardboard box of partly-empty cigarettes and he knew Naruto must have been feeling particularly overwhelmed by whatever emotions were swirling around in his cognition because he only ever really smoked when he was.

But Naruto's eyebrows furrowed slightly and he seemed to remember something or discover a dark thought, Haku wasn't sure. But he ashed the cigarette almost roughly before putting it out after just one solitary drag and he almost seemed to spit the smoky air out with frustration and trepidation and Haku knew he had something heavy on his mind. He didn't blame him for it; they hadn't expected Kyuubi to be there. He wasn't often here weekdays until later at night.

"Haku, I'll be right back, ok? You can smoke if you want. You know where to find it," he assured as he tossed his pack of cigarettes toward the boy sitting on the end of his bed who caught them with a grateful and very small smile. He reached in and grabbed an odd looking cigarette from the far back corner, hidden well by the foil package wrapping. His fingers rolled over the smooth, cool plastic surface as he twisted off the brown end to reveal the hallowed out inside.

If the apartment didn't already smell so strongly of weed, the smell might have crept across the room when he opened it.

Naruto tossed him a lighter as Haku passed back the mostly full carton of cigarettes before he exited the room to the hallway as he made his way toward his mother's room. He hesitated – and for a really long time – at her door. He learned early to avoid her room the closer it got to evening; it wasn't evening now, but almost seven years of skittish behavior as he reached for the doorknob couldn't be erased in a moment as arguably as insignificant as this.

"Mom?" he began softly as he knocked, opening the door slowly and with caution. His eyes found the bed and he saw his mother in her bed alone and all his hesitation disappeared, especially when he saw how badly she was sweating. She was shaking and moaning in her sleep and Naruto knew she was having a nightmare, "Hey mom, wake up, it's after three," he continued in a soft tone as he made his way around the bed toward her side, kneeling down next to her and patting her softly on the cheek. He was afraid of waking her any more abruptly – she might lash out.

She woke up slowly and reluctantly and everything about her features screamed sick and Naruto waited with trepidation for what kind of mood she might be in; drugs fucked with people and his mom messed with a lot of stuff that Naruto reverently feared. He wasn't sure if it was her choice or not…probably by now she was begging for the fix; it was how Kyuubi was able to use her apartment – use _her_.

Her eyes found him and Naruto watched her forcer her features close to normal because she didn't want to worry him.

"Hey baby," she whispered in a tired tone as she wiped the back of her hand across her forehead in an attempt to remove the sweat beating across her pale and clammy skin.

"Have you eaten anything today or yesterday? Mom you look sick," he noticed in an anxious tone.

"I'm fine baby," she reassured in a gentle tone as she rolled onto her back, eyes landing on the empty side of the bed, "Where's your dad?"

"God, mom," he whispered, more to himself than anything – she was so out of it. He reached over and placed a gentle hand on her face, turning her back toward him, "Dad's dead, remember?" he reminded, earning an odd look from the red haired woman.

"I meant Kyuubi," she mused softly while Naruto pulled back, eyebrows furrowed. Her features were shifting and he could tell she was trying not to look as sick as she did; what a helplessly futile thing to try and do – but Naruto didn't really think any less of her for it. He was just as stubborn as her. His dad _did_ always used to say he was his mother's son. He inherited a lot of her personality and a good portion of his looks. So he couldn't help but feel a small surge of pride because, to him, relentlessness was admirable; people should never give up.

But more disconcerting was what she had actually just said. She meant Kyuubi? _Kyuubi? _When the _hell_ did a term reserved for fatherhood and Kyuubi's person fall anywhere _near_ close in categorized thought to be considered possible to interexchange, even by accident?

How the fuck did anyone consider them equal?

"He's not my _fucking_ dad, mom!" he almost yelled in a frustrated tone, "Not even close!"

God, he missed his dad _so much_.

So much because his mom wasn't even real anymore: she was a paper-thin shell of herself and she knew it. It was what drugs did to people.

She didn't have much of a choice. When Minato had been killed, she was left with no job and an eight year old boy who needed to eat and go to school and have a home to return to at nightfall. So she did what any desperate high school dropout in her situation would have done. She waited as long as she could, but the economy was poor and it was her last resort.

If only she could have done the job without the drugs – but that was idealistic and naïve to imagine; without the drugs, she would be useless. Without the drugs she could walk away at any time. Without the drugs she wouldn't have a deadly need to stay and do whatever she was told, whenever she was told.

"Could you go get him for me?" she asked in a halfway desperate tone.

"Mom, you need to eat. When did you eat last?" Naruto urged in reminder. She forced herself to ignore his disappointment that she was putting the day she needed to face off so consistently. She shot the ceiling a thoughtful look, but it soon turned anxious and Naruto knew she was heroin sick.

"Go get Kyuubi," she whispered as she closed her eyes, an arm draping over her eyes.

"Mom just–"

"Go Naruto! Ok?" she snapped, voice soft but irritated and Naruto pulled back in disappointment. He was fighting a losing battle; nothing was as life-consuming as heroin – at least it seemed that way in so many different places in Naruto's life. Drugs were always getting in the way.

He shouldn't really talk. He did quite a few drugs himself and he fucking hated himself for it; she probably loathed her own existence just as much as he derided his own.

He stood and exited the bedroom, not bothering to close the door on the way out as he entered the living room and willed himself to _not_ act like a little shit for his mother's sake; but seeing Kyuubi sleeping so soundly on his living room couch with an empty bottle of tequila on the coffee table next to him and the TV left on overnight just made his blood boil.

He contemplated how to rouse the man and his mind went straight to the 409 under his kitchen sink but he slapped himself mentally for it before resolving to just calling his name from the other side of the coffee table separating them.

When he finally woke up, his groggy and somehow piercing eyes found Naruto's and he glared a very generous portion of threat. Naruto could admit that he was profoundly defenseless to it; his mother was heroin sick which was as good as not even here at all so Kyuubi was free to kick his ass if he felt like it. Not to mention that Haku was here, and Haku really didn't need to deal with it, especially when Naruto had promised they'd hang out. Haku deserved a couple hours of positive vibe.

"What?" the man snapped in a harsh tone that had Naruto shifting his eyes away in insecurity. Every single thing counted and he desperately needed not to fuck up, for Haku and his mother's sakes mostly. So he coaxed himself to humble his hatred enough to sound self-effacing because that would let Kyuubi know he was willing to humiliate himself however possible if he would just go help his mom.

Kyuubi reached for an empty sandwich size zip-lock bag on the table and he shook it with distasteful look, probably at the fact that it was completely empty. He tossed it over the armrest his head rested against and it fell into the empty metal trashcan under it. Naruto stared at it for a longing moment but he yanked his gaze away with a determined edge.

_Patience!_

"My mom needs you," he explained in a low tone, eyes steadfast on the floor as he avoided Kyuubi's piercing gaze.

Kyuubi's eyes shifted toward the clock on the wall and he smirked softly.

"I'll bet she does."

But he didn't say anything else because he loved to torment Naruto in whatever way possible and Naruto had already submitted himself to endure it.

"Well will you go help her? She's getting sick," he explained in the most neutral tone he could grit out.

"Why should I?" Kyuubi asked in an amused tone as he smiled widely, arms crossing over his chest and ankles crossing at the opposite end of the couch as he leaned into the cushions beneath him, features downright superior as he waited for Naruto's answer.

"She really needs to eat, and she won't eat if she's sick," Naruto pleaded halfway monotonously. He was trying not to sound too desperate because he still had a little pride. Plus, his mind was halfway elsewhere.

"Why does that matter to me? What benefit is it to me to get up and help her?" he inquired in a tone Naruto couldn't quite decipher; he grit his teeth in irritation.

"What do you want?"

Kyuubi smirked and Naruto shifted his eyes away because Kyuubi knew he was broke – not that Kyuubi actually needed money from him. He just liked to make it as hard as possible for Naruto.

"Give me your cigarettes," he demanded with a wry smile. Naruto fished out the requested item before throwing them at the man's chest with a good amount of irritation in his demeanor. He'd _just_ bought them. _Fuck_.

But seeing Naruto's frustration was only fuel to get Kyuubi toward helping his mom and it was working for the most part. Kyuubi was getting up.

A thought suddenly struck him and he realized he'd better make food while his mother would actually eat it. It would still be a pain in the ass to get her to do it, but at least she wouldn't be throwing up.

Kyuubi left for the hallway and Naruto searched through the kitchen, realization hitting him slowly that they had no food and he was already out of credit on his EBT. He felt his frustration boil because he'd just helped his mom get high for nothing _and_ lost his last pack of cigarettes in the process until he got paid at the end of the week.

He knew cigarettes should be just about the last thing he should complain about, but the bad choice to smoke had already been made and he regretted it with a very profound knowledge of how stupid it really was.

But that didn't make it any less addicting or any less shitty when his withdrawals kicked in.

Something chimed in his memory and he straightened as he glanced toward the trashcan at the end of the couch. His eyes shot to the wall shared between half the kitchen and his mother's bedroom. Kyuubi probably wouldn't come out right away.

His eyes swept the counter and he grabbed the first clean napkin he saw before heading for the small metal can and pulling out the bag gently and surely, fingers careful not to touch the plastic directly. With another quick glance toward the hall he hurried off toward his room and slipped inside quickly.

When he reentered his room, Haku shot him an inquisitive look – he probably looked a little crazy; he was high on adrenalin and potential because he'd been waiting for this exact moment for years. His eyes were probably burning with vengeance.

He felt a bit grateful for Haku's tact to at least ignore him long enough for him to finish what he was doing – obviously it was important. He pulled several books free from his bookcase and stuck the bag, along with the napkin, behind the books, before the missing section was returned, blocking his small and odd treasure away from eyesight.

Things were coming together and his eyes were watching his future blossom with possibilities before the sound of a lighter snapped him back to reality. Oh right, his mom was probably getting high right now thanks to him. And to top it off, he wouldn't be bringing her that food he'd talked about.

Naruto sat down heavily on the edge of his bed by his bedside table and lit the cigarette left in the ashtray before Kyuubi saw it and took it, too.

Haku watched him with trepidation in his features. Naruto really only smoked cigarettes when he was stressed and he didn't blame him at all for that. Naruto was in a very tight spot right now at a very young age with very little consent. He usually smoked a few months at a time until a very gray period would pass, but this one had been rolling on without end for nine months now and he feared for when and how it would end. These things usually died spectacularly.

"Sorry, Haku," he apologized softly with a genuinely deceiving smile. He hated how good Naruto was at lying to him; he wanted so badly to come off as this perfectly content person and he knew Naruto only did it for Haku's sake. He passed the orange bubbler in his hands toward the boy next to him and Naruto smiled wider in appreciation as he accepted the piece with one hand and the lighter with the other.

He held the carb with the thumb of the hand holding the piece by the thin neck as he flicked the lighter and lit the bowl. Smoke filtered into the chamber with a soft bubbling before he released the carb and tried to clear it. But he handed it back to Haku half full, smoke rising from the bowl and out through the carb and mouthpiece, chamber half-full as he emptied his lungs with a soft cough.

"That's impossible to clear if the bowl stays lit," he breathed out through the smoke and a wry smile – his piece was trying to get him more fucked up than he'd anticipated; sneaky pipe.

Haku laughed as he took the bubbler as it was handed to him and he quickly cleared the smoke left inside before it got stale.

But the bowl was still lit and the chamber filled with more smoke as the old smoke was sucked out and Naruto laughed, a good amount of smoke escaping his lips as he did, enticing a cough from his lungs. Fuck he wished he'd of gotten all the smoke out _first_ before coughing.

"See!" he exclaimed through his cough. He had more to say but he stopped in favor of coughing harshly into the bend of his arm; that was ok though, the harder the cough, the higher he was, "I'll clear it one day. I'll just power hit the whole bowl until it's nothing but ash – then it can't refill."

Haku laughed genuinely because Naruto probably wasn't kidding and if he said he'd do it, he probably would.

"Today's one day," he added softly before lighting the bowl to escape Naruto's sharp gaze.

"Haku you're instigating!" Naruto accused in an amused tone while Haku smiled around the mouthpiece.

Naruto smiled fondly at the boy next to him and tried not to visibly flinch when he heard a loud thud and audible arguing – Kyuubi probably just hit his mother. Haku shot him a subtle look and he put the pipe down before he could spark the lighter.

"Maybe we should go," he whispered as he glanced toward the window. He hated it, because there was nothing he could do. In retrospect – nothing. Nothing. _Nothing! Fuck!_ If he tried to intervene, he usually made things much worse for his mom and he understood a thing or two about letting someone handle their own situation; not that he was unwilling to help his mother – but he knew when it was a lost cause by now.

Plus, she asked for him to come, so she knew what she was getting into. And he knew there was no way he could help.

They both stood and headed for the window and Naruto flinched visibly this time when Kyuubi hit his mom and Haku ignored it because he respected Naruto's pride enough. Haku reached for the window and unlatched the lock as he tossed it open before climbing nimbly through the small spaces between the bars over Naruto's window.

Out of all the people who visited Naruto's home, only he, Haku, and Gaara could still slip between the bars and they were almost too big to fit through; Haku doubted they'd be able to by this time next year. He was confident Naruto would figure out another escape route if not just modify this one without the landlord finding out.

Naruto squeezed through next and he let the window slide shut with an audible click as the window locked itself. All the windows in this building were equipped with that feature; Naruto liked and disliked it – it was impossible to sneak _in_ unless he left it open which was just asking for someone to try and break in. His window _was_ on street level – people walked past his bedroom window all hours of the day.

Plus, having an escape was way more important than having an entrance because no one really cared when he came home, so he wasn't complaining.

"Naruto!" he heard from across the street. Both boys glanced up to see Suigetsu and Naruto waved in acknowledgement as they quickly crossed the street to go meet him, "Hey, how'd your meeting go with your teache – Naruto? Hey!"

Suigetsu was only attempting to be nice; Naruto had seemed so determined – he saw him last within the hour. But Naruto walked right past him and he didn't even get to finish his question.

But the blonde turned and stared at him expectantly as he motioned for him to follow.

"Come on, I gotta get out of here," he explained easily before continuing down the street toward the diner – it was where he always went second; his place to think for a minute without anyone bothering him.

They entered the diner and looked toward the bar. Juugo wasn't scheduled tonight and Naruto shot Haku a subtle glance; he could see the anticipation fall into disappointment in his eyes and he glanced toward Suigetsu next who looked back at him sympathetically.

"Hey, how bout we go back to my place instead?" Suigetsu suggested: more for Haku than anyone.

He glanced up at Suigetsu and smiled shyly in approval. Naruto felt his heart swell with the type of smile on Haku's lips – the kind that he was trying to force down but couldn't. Naruto didn't really understand Haku's fascination with Juugo but…to each his own. He was positive Haku was gay; he just wasn't sure if Haku knew it yet himself, but he'd figure it out on his own. It was better that way.

When they got to the apartment, Juugo was in the kitchen and his features brightened instantly when they landed on Haku.

"Hey, Juugo," Haku greeted coyly as he took a seat on the stool at the corner of the kitchen. Naruto shared an amused look with Suigetsu at his behavior. They struck up a personal conversation and Naruto pretty much knew he would be occupied for the remainder of the night. Suigetsu and himself sat down in the living room and watched something on the television while chatting here and there.

Every so often he would read something in his phone and his expression would range from irritated to confused and Suigetsu subtly wondered who he was talking to.

"So how'd your meeting with your teacher go?" Suigetsu asked when Naruto put his phone back down in his lap, blue eyes shifting up to meet Suigetsu's.

"Great! I got an A," he explained in an uplifting tone.

"Naruto you should really try and go to college," Suigetsu encouraged in a genuine tone.

"Why?" Naruto asked, tone suspicious and eyes narrowed.

"Why go to college?"

"No, why are you telling me that?"

"What, I can't have responsible ideals?" Suigetsu inquired in a halfheartedly offended tone.

"No," Naruto corrected with an amused smile as he kicked his feet up onto the coffee table before them, "It just caught me off guard is all."

Suigetsu mumbled something about disrespectful kids as he followed suit and something jingled near his feet as he upset it upon throwing his feet onto the table and he watched Naruto slap his fingers over whatever it was and he was already one hundred percent distracted by it.

"What is _this_?" he asked in awe as he held up the small treasure in his fingers.

"Uh…I don't remember what it's used for actually–" Suigetsu admitted as he scratched the back of his neck with his hand as he smiled sheepishly. It looked like…a piece of metal about the length of his finger and bent at a ninety degree angle – hm, interesting.

"I didn't actually mean, 'what is it'," Naruto explained in an unimpressed tone. Suigetsu laughed; sometimes Naruto made him feel really dumb, "It's a tension wrench."

"Oh," he breathed in understanding. He didn't even know he had a tension wrench – or what a tension wrench was even used for. What could it possibly fix? It was so small, "Do you – um, do you want it?" Suigetsu asked as he shrugged in indifference, "I would probably just end up throwing it away."

"Fuck yea!" Naruto cheered as he grasped the wrench with his hand tightly, a smile splitting across his features. But his hand opened quickly and it seemed as if he'd noticed something. He looked at the handle of the wrench and ran his finger across a small strip of sandpaper stuck there then laughed in amusement, "This belonged to a _thief_. If they come looking, don't tell them where to find it."

"What?" Suigetsu inquired, completely lost by his candid words, "How do you know?"

Naruto's eyes remained glued to his newly acquired instrument and he smiled at the question.

"I just do," he breathed before his eyes shifted forward and he looked pensive, "I want it on my keychain. Too bad there's no way to get it on there."

"We could weld it," Suigetsu suggested impulsively as he jumped off the couch with an impressive amount of energy, "I'm positive I have a blowtorch around here somewhere."

"Oh geeze," Naruto breathed to himself uneasily as he watched him move toward a pile of assorted crap he didn't want to throw away near the corner of the room before he began sifting through it.

"See!" Suigetsu claimed in victory as he held up a helmet – not a blowtorch but ok, "This is the mask I used to have to wear when I used a blowtorch at my old job."

He smacked it on and flipped down the face mask, leaving a small window from which Naruto could still see his eyes. The younger looked pretty unimpressed.

But a victorious '_blowtorch!_' echoed through the apartment and Naruto knew he found the tool he was looking for. He moved toward the outlet where the TV was plugged in and Naruto watched him a little incredulously.

"Uuh, Suigetsu? Won't that blow a fuse?" Naruto inquired, earning a hesitant and thoughtful look from the blue haired man.

"Ooh, I'll go through the bathroom," Suigetsu suggested as he fled toward said location, "They have special outlets for that right? So women can use their hair-driers and whatever?"

"Except that's a blowtorch – and it's just a _little_ bit different from a hair-drier."

"Hot-air-blower, fire-spitter, it's all the same, isn't it?"

"Whatever Suigetsu, this is your apartment and you're and adult. Do what you want," Naruto assured with hands raised to his shoulders, palms out in surrender.

Suigetsu smirked in triumph as he plugged in the tool before heading for the couch, the long, orange extension cord trailing along behind him.

"Let me see what we're working with here," he breathed as Naruto pulled out his keys with one hand while holding his newly acquired tool in the other. He tapped the bent part against the keyring gently before looking up in inquiry.

"Is this actually gonna work?" he asked, tone unsure.

"It should. Most wrenches are made out of chromium and keyrings are made of stainless steel which is just steel with chromium added to it to prevent rusting. Plus, this is technically an oxyacetylene torch, which means it gets hot enough to weld – it mixes fuel with oxygen. So let's cross our fingers huh? Alright just hold it together where you want it welded…" Suigetsu trailed off, earning an incredulous look in return.

"Fuck no! You'll burn me!" he denied hastily as he pulled his hands away quickly before Suigetsu could bring the blowtorch any closer.

The blue haired man grabbed the keyring out of one hand, and the wrench out of the other, with a hint of attitude and Naruto gladly let him. He headed for the kitchen and Juugo and Haku evacuated the general area smartly.

Juugo said something about blowing a fuse once again and Suigetsu shot him a glare while he steadily ignored the warning.

He filled the sink with cold water as he lit the torch and the rest of the electronic appliances didn't seem affected so he continued until the welding was finished and he dropped the keyring into the water with a loud hissing, steam rising to the ceiling for a moment from the heat.

Naruto and Juugo shared a quick look because neither of them had really expected it to work and Suigetsu turned in time to catch the end of it.

"See! You guys were just being paranoid! This is a _man's_ apartment and I'm a _man_," he explained in a deep voice as he held up the blowtorch with one hand while flipping down the faceplate of his helmet and lighting the fire in his hand.

Then it was quiet and dark and Naruto hit the floor laughing riotously, partly because he was clumsy enough with the lights on and it only took fractions of a second to find something to trip over.

"A _dumb_ man!" he deemed through his laughter while Suigetsu reluctantly joined in, followed by Haku and Juugo who had been silently watching since Suigetsu's initial screech of '_Blowtorch!_'

Good friends were hard to come by.

oOo

Sasuke lay on his stomach on his bed, pencil tapping against his cheek as he read through the textbook laid out before him.

What the fuck was he supposed to be studying about? He swore he read this like eight times now. He seriously couldn't focus with how distracted he felt.

As if to nail the lid on the coffin, his phone vibrated and he tossed his pencil over the edge of his bed as he rolled over onto his back, pulling out his phone swiftly in the process and sliding it open to read the text sent to him.

_Teme! _

Thank god. Someone he actually liked talking to.

Sasuke smirked a little because of Naruto's antics. His personality blared through even in a thing as detached and unreadable as a text and that kind of amazed him because Sasuke failed to show even an ounce of his personality in _person_. Or maybe that was his personality – the lack thereof; he didn't know. He didn't really care.

_Ah, the guy who doesn't text back when it's important._

It was only seconds before he received a reply.

_What do you mean? You're the one who never texted back. Asshole_.

Ah, whatever. It was just a technicality when it came down to it; it was probably a stray text that never met its destination. Sasuke scrolled up to see the last text that never went through and he wished badly it _had_ reached Naruto because he really wanted to know the information he'd been inquiring about. And by now it was far too late to re-request the information he wanted; it was no longer the appropriate time, and Naruto probably had other things to talk about.

_Forget it, what's on your mind, dobe?_

_Too much_.

Sasuke felt his stomach drop from the ambiguity alone. Naruto didn't even yell at him for the nickname; things were getting worse.

_Do you need help?_

Sasuke waited a very long time for a reply and he wondered if Naruto was caught up with something or if he was having a difficult time admitting it but he just assumed it was the latter when he finally did receive a short '_yes_' and nothing more.

_What do you need?_

He responded much quicker this time.

_Food, please? It's for my mom. I have no idea when she ate last. I'm out of EBT_.

Sasuke grit his teeth as he reigned in his patience. Naruto's mother was so lucky to have a child like Naruto; he was willing to do anything for her, even demolish his pride directly to Sasuke himself – the person he strived to be best for more than anyone.

_Ok, but what about you?_

He wasn't sure whether to feel surprised or not to find that Naruto wouldn't respond.

oOo

I know the first two chapters are really slow, but the plot will pick up pretty much right at the beginning of chapter three – thank you for being patient :) the worst is over lol


	3. Chapter 3: The Birds

The plot actually begins to develop now :)

**Chapter Three: The Birds**

If Kyuubi had one way to describe business, it'd be _booming_. But the drug trade was an endlessly growing industry for a very needy consumer and he never had to worry about going out of business. It wasn't too bad.

But he did have his own problems to deal with – problems with those arrogant little street dealers beneath him popping caps left and fucking right. Look what Zabuza started; he kills one guy and their borders are a fucking warzone.

Now to fix it…he thought Gato was dumb enough to accept the small sacrifices he'd let loose a little too close to Gato's territory – how many of his guys had been shot by now? Thirteen? He was pretty sure about six of them were dead too.

But Gato wasn't as stupid as he'd appeared; this had become personal and Gato made it pretty clear that he wouldn't ease up until he received an ample sacrifice – one that affected _Zabuza_.

Zabuza…that fucker seemed to read his mind.

"You need to address that problem. It's been weeks and things are getting worse at street level."

Kyuubi glared toward him and he stared back impassively.

"I do need to address that don't I?" he played along in a sarcastic tone, eyes angry but subtly so, "Who do _you_ want me to send, Zabuza?"

The man shot him a knowing look and Kyuubi smiled widely for it.

"You want me to send Naruto."

Zabuza didn't respond in any verbal sense; his gaze merely shifted away indifferently and Kyuubi knew what that meant.

"I'm not sending him. Besides, this is your fault, not mine," the red haired man reminded crudely.

"I don't understand your hang up on that brat," Kidomaru interjected from the kitchen. Kyuubi looked furious for his audacity.

"Was I talking to you?" he yelled over his shoulder before returning his gaze to Zabuza who looked as if he might have been thinking something along the same lines, "Naruto's a better dealer than all of you. He's a shithead but he sells shitty crack at a high price and he's only getting better. Plus, I can't kill the kid; Kushina would kick the lifestyle and I need her more than I need him. We can't lose the apartment."

It was true. Sure, they'd be fine finding another place, but relocation sucked and none of them felt like dealing with it right now; although, that could change any minute.

Still, Zabuza had a choice to make.

"Fine, I'll go."

"Haku goes," Kyuubi corrected easily as he leaned back, one foot kicking up to rest on his knee and arms lacing behind his head, "I'm sticking with that; before the end of the month."

Zabuza bit his tongue.

The door clicked as someone unlocked it and Kyuubi watched as it swung open, revealing the two people they'd been talking about. He smirked. What perfect timing.

Naruto shot him that same glare he saved just for him. His smirk widened and he waved in a mocking sort of way that earned him a pretty disgusted look as the blonde headed for his room.

"You're short."

Naruto froze and his gaze snapped quickly to the man sitting at the couch, stacks of money laid out before him. Haku shot Naruto a hesitant and uneasy look but Naruto just tilted his head subtly toward the hallway – 'go wait in my room'; that's what it meant. So he slipped off down the hall and disappeared through the bedroom door because he wasn't all that good with the arguing like Naruto was.

"No I'm not," Naruto assured quickly as he turned to face him more fully, eyebrows furrowing in unease, "I'm ahead; I know I am."

"You're behind and I don't really give a fuck if you think otherwise," the man reminded as he nodded toward Kimimaro standing in a dark corner of the room by the door who pushed himself off the wall with a small stretch.

"No I'm not!" Naruto yelled as he took several confrontational steps forward, features twisted with injustice, "I was early _and_ ahead – you can't do this!"

"I absolutely can and I'm going to," the man assured disinterestedly as he motioned for the white haired man to continue on his way down the hall toward the master bedroom.

"I won't let you!"

Naruto darted for the hallway and a loud thud issued momentarily after he disappeared around the corner to it followed by a choked out '_Get off me you little fucker!_'

The pair stumbled back, Naruto planted firmly on the tall man's back, one arm locked around his neck and the other locking over his fist firmly to prevent escape while the man futilely pried at the arm blocking his airway. Zabuza sprang into action first. He grabbed each of his wrists, easily pulling them apart and away from his partner as he yanked him off the man and pressed him against the wall roughly, one hand holding his wrists together behind his back while the other pressed him up against the wall forcefully between his shoulders.

He continued to struggle and with so much vigor that Kyuubi shook his head slightly as he grabbed a syringe off the table before him and pulled out a vile from the breast pocket of the inside of his coat. He loaded the chamber with a steady hand before removing the needle and nodding toward Naruto's bedroom door.

Zabuza tightened his grip on Naruto's arms before yanking him back and forcing him down the hall until they arrived at his bedroom. Naruto fought against the destination so firmly that Zabuza resolved to lifting him several inches from the ground as Kyuubi opened the bedroom door. Haku glanced up when the two entered suddenly, carrying Naruto, and he gazed warily at the syringe in Kyuubi's hand.

Naruto was thrown roughly on to the mattress lying on the floor and Zabuza pinned him down quickly, one hand holding his arm just above his elbow and the other steadfast on the wrist of the same arm. Naruto struggled fruitlessly as Kyuubi drew closer and he opened his mouth to scream.

But before he could finish calling out his mom's name, a fist was in his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs and efficiently shutting him up.

The needle pierced his skin and he felt the world slam into him sidelong. An involuntary groan escaped his lips as his muscles grew progressively weaker – even though it felt like he was fighting much harder now. Zabuza released his hold and left the room momentarily to check the progress of another task because Naruto had stopped straining against him and he knew he wouldn't be getting up without help.

Naruto felt everything tilting and he hoped he wasn't falling off his mattress because it felt as if he were about to. Wasn't he lying on his back? Muffled voices drifted toward him as _that_ man roughly woke his mother up from her drug induced sleep and he felt nausea rising from the pit of his stomach.

It wasn't long before footsteps padded down the hall and Naruto heard his mother speak, her voice unsteady and nervous.

"Naruto? I have to go to work, but I'll be home later, ok baby?" she called from the hallway. Naruto didn't reply – she was so oblivious to everything going on in her own house, but that was kind of what an eight-year smack binge did to a person.

And he couldn't really believe she still tried to pretend that 'work' was something other than what she was really doing, but he also wasn't sure he wanted to face the time yet when she figured out he knew a little more about the world than she'd anticipated.

Plus, he wasn't sure that he'd be able to form words as he wasn't entirely sure how to remember the way to do it.

Someone called his mom a bitch – that spiderlike man, he was almost positive; and he felt his blood boil with _anger_ because his mom _wasn't_ a bitch!

Kyuubi lit a cigarette as he leaned against the wall and something about the flick of the spark snapped him back to his drug induced mindscape and his nausea sidelined him. He leaned quickly over the edge of the mattress, grabbing the plastic garbage can near the bedside table while his stomach heaved painfully.

Zabuza reentered the room and made his way toward Kyuubi's side where he always was, eyes unable to really watch as the blonde struggled against the drug plaguing his veins. Haku always stared in skepticism when this happened because Zabuza almost looked guilty and it just didn't make sense.

He couldn't even talk to Naruto about it because Naruto swore Haku was imagining things because it was impossible for Zabuza to feel any sort of sympathy in succession with hurting Naruto. Haku wasn't so sure he agreed.

Naruto's muscles went slack when the nausea resided and he breathed with difficulty, fingers grasping weakly at the trashcan as he attempted to pull himself back up onto the bed. He was slipping toward the floor and he couldn't figure out how to right himself.

Haku moved to help him but Kyuubi stopped him halfway to the bed with a light glare.

"Have a seat," he suggested in a dangerously low tone before taking a long drag from his cigarette while Haku hesitantly reinstated himself upon the seat in the corner that he'd attempted to abandon.

Naruto felt the floor rise to meet him and his fingers slipped away from the trashcan to avoid knocking it over as he groaned lowly, curling into himself as an arm wrapped around his stomach in an attempt to ease the pain emanating from there.

At least it was only a few inches of a fall – still though, the floor was much harder than his humble mattress and he wished he could get back up on it.

Kyuubi watched as his features twisted with pain and Haku bit his tongue to silence himself.

This was Kyuubi's most effective form of punishment; Naruto was weak to those drugs. Each time they were forced into his system, they never failed to really fuck him up.

It was probably a combination between Naruto's anxiety and Kyuubi's choice of dosage but Haku wasn't a doctor or a chemist so he could never be sure.

One thing he was positive of though, was that he'd never tried or been given the amount Kyuubi forced into Naruto's bloodstream and he was positive he never wanted to.

"Maybe one of these days you'll figure out your place," the man mused before taking a deep drag on the cigarette between his lips.

"It's not – anywhere below _you_," Naruto choked out, emphasizing the last word with as much disgust as he could pile on in his impaired state. Kyuubi couldn't really believe he was still trying to defy him.

Haku shrank into himself as far as he could and he worried his lip between two rows of teeth, eyebrows furrowed deeply in unease.

Kyuubi pushed himself off the wall slowly before kneeling down before the blonde, resting the cigarette in his hand on the ashtray on the bedside table as he grabbed the front of Naruto's shirt and yanked him to his feet roughly before turning and slamming him up against the wall. Naruto struggled to stay on his feet but it was really just Kyuubi's strength that kept him from sliding to the floor.

"I have never met a stupider person in my life. Your mom will pay for it," the man hissed before punching him swiftly in the stomach and releasing his hold on the blonde who slid to the floor with a groan of discomfort.

"No, wait–" he choked out softly as Kyuubi headed for the door, grabbing his cigarette on the way, Zabuza following suit.

Neither waited and Naruto hadn't really expected them to.

The second the door swung shut behind them, Haku was up and kneeling at Naruto's side, features twisted with unease.

"Stay right here, ok?" the brunette coaxed as he placed a shaking hand on Naruto's clammy cheek, "Don't close your eyes, Naruto. We have to stay awake ok?"

"Haku, my mom–" he tried to explain, words cluttered from the drug in his veins and eyes begging for the brunette to understand, "Go tell them, I'll do anything."

"Sh," the taller hushed as he glanced around the room, spotting a half-empty water bottle on the floor near the bottom of the bedside table. He reached over and grabbed it before opening it and grabbing Naruto's hand, placing it over the bottle as he lifted it up halfway to his lips, "Drink some water," he coaxed as he helped guide it toward his lips.

But Naruto turned in refusal and he fought against the hand pushing toward his face.

Haku pulled back hesitantly because Naruto's breathing became shallower and he was having too difficult a time breathing to think about drinking water and it was probably because it was all he could do to fight back his nausea.

"I hate this," he droned in a voice hardly above a whisper, eyes screwed tightly shut against the feeling he could do nothing to rid himself of. He _hated_ that he had to just ride it out. Each time he glanced toward the clock on his bedside table, he swore the words were changing – even though a clock shouldn't have words, right? How had not one minute passed yet?

Haku pulled out his phone and composed a quick text before returning his attention to the blonde before him. Naruto was attempting to sit up straighter but it really only caused him to slip further down the wall.

He was trembling violently but Haku doubted he was even aware by how far off his half-lidded stare was.

Things were getting worse, so quickly, and Haku was scared: for himself _and_ Naruto.

He prayed Gaara got his text quickly.

oOo

The next morning was quiet. The apartment was still empty and neither Gaara nor Haku were really big talkers – that was Naruto's job.

But Naruto was finally asleep and it was safe to let him be, so neither of them could bring themselves to whisper a word.

That is, until someone was tapping at the window and it was miraculous how fast Naruto's head popped off the pillow as drowsy eyes opened to check the situation; he was overly paranoid even in his sleep, but Haku couldn't blame him for it.

"Kankuro sh!" Gaara scolded in a frustrated tone. Haku was trying to convince Naruto to lie back down but he had pushed himself up until he was sitting, eyes planted on the window. Kankuro looked apologetic.

Gaara made his way to the window and tossed it open with a frustrated edge and Naruto waved sleepily with a small attempt at a tired smile, and it really just made the older feel guiltier.

"What?" the redhead snapped furiously.

"School?" Kankuro reminded with an eyebrow quirking up at the show of emotion.

"Right, school," Naruto breathed as he scooted for the edge of the bed in an attempt to get up.

"Naruto, be realistic. You're not going to school," Gaara asserted firmly before nodding toward Haku to encourage him to keep the blonde from getting up. It wasn't hard to coax him back to bed, "We're not going," he repeated when he turned back to face Kankuro.

"Everything ok? You left pretty quick last night. What's wrong with Short-and-Loud?"

There was a soft and affectionate 'Fuck you Kankuro!' from the bed and it made all of them breathe a little with ease. They were out of the woods; it was ok to feel relieved – Gaara just forgot sometimes.

"Kyuubi," he explained quickly as he leaned against the wall to face away from his brother, eyes landing on Naruto who was harassing Haku about _something_, who knows – he always had something to say.

"Naruto, you should come home with us for now," Kankuro decided as he interrupted whatever he and Haku were talking about.

"Thanks, Kankuro, but I really have to be here when my mom gets home. I fucked her over big time," he admitted in a humbling tone, eyes steadfast on the wall to his left

"How so?" Gaara inquired quickly, eyes locked firmly on Haku who was looking toward Naruto for help; he looked ready to crack.

But one unwavering and piercing gaze of warning from Naruto seemed to shut him up quickly. Gaara looked frustrated and it was clear he had been trying to find out what happened before he got there probably _since_ he got here.

But Naruto wasn't talking about that – and neither was Haku because Naruto said so; Naruto knew this or that about controlling people with fear. It was usually surprisingly effective – especially since Naruto seemed to be scared of _nothing_ himself. Plus, he studied Kyuubi's methods for years and Haku didn't know anyone better at terrorism.

"Come on, we're looking _forward_. I need to figure something out, not dwell on something," the blonde reminded in a frustrated tone. That was it; they were done talking about it.

Naruto was _always_ looking forward.

oOo

"_Sasuke!_"

Dark eyes shifted to the area where the noise came from but he couldn't see Naruto, or his blonde hair, over the golden tips of the tall meadow grass. Naruto was short as hell, even for a nine-year-old; but Sasuke didn't care. Naruto was his best friend no matter what. Besides, Naruto wasn't that short compared to _him_ – it was just the doctors that said he was too small.

Sasuke could see the grass moving somewhere to his right and he turned toward it as his eyes caught sight of bright locks of hair. The grass was only about up to his nose – chin on his tiptoes; that gave him plenty of visibility for when he reached out and weaved a hand through Naruto's hair as he grabbed him by the head.

"Gotcha, dobe."

What he forgot, however, was how graceful Naruto was – which was not at all. The unexpected attack sent him tripping forward and knocking Sasuke over in order to stay on his own feet. He glanced down at Sasuke for a short moment, slightly incredulous to how that had worked out for him.

"Heh, looks like _I_ got _you!_" he corrected with a cocky smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest, "And don't call me _dobe_, Sasuke!"

"Better late than never," the brunette mocked with an impressively haughty smirk for a nine-year-old, "And what are you gonna do about it? Dobe."

"I'm gonna tell your mom! And then your dad will slap the shit out of you," Naruto explained with a victorious smirk.

"That kind of stuff doesn't happen to me, dumbass" Sasuke reminded impatiently.

"Ha! But I know you'll get vinegar for that! Not me though," he asserted easily; he'd never gotten vinegar for a bad word – not once. Sasuke though…he got a mouthful if he mumbled 'crap' in his mother's earshot.

He took off toward the edge of the field where the grass plane evened out to short grass where it was green and mowed.

"Sasuke! Naruto! You boys shouldn't be playing back there, there might be snakes!"

Naruto appeared out of the grass and Sasuke popped out not long after, chasing after him as he ran for where Sasuke's family was sitting on a large picnic blanket.

"Naruto!" Sasuke warned just before the blonde veered off path to the Uchihas toward the playground, Sasuke chasing after him closely. He didn't want vinegar damn it! He would never let Naruto tell on him; never – he wouldn't lose.

Sasuke was a bit quicker than Naruto and he grabbed a wrist before they reached the edge of the bark enclosure around the play structure and they fell to the ground, Naruto face down in the bark and Sasuke sitting on his back. It was a tremendous fall – the kind most kids would scream and cry over from the shock alone.

But Naruto and Sasuke were different from most kids and just as much as Sasuke liked to torment Naruto, Naruto thrived on inevitably fighting against it. Not to mention that Naruto was seriously indestructible; Itachi had never seen that kid react to pain.

"The information you have is too dangerous. I have to kill you," Sasuke admitted in an airy tone before pulling Naruto up far enough to pretend to slit his throat.

"Sasuke!" his mother screeched as she stood hastily from the blanket after witnessing what he'd just done, "Stop killing people, that is _not_ ok! Honestly I don't know what's wrong with you kids these days!"

Naruto was laughing and still trying to get out from under Sasuke before he pulled out a 'gun' and shot Sasuke with a small 'pew!' that had him rolling off the blonde as he was 'hit'.

"Sasuke! You're a horrible ninja!" Naruto accused as he tossed the gun and took a defensive version of some sort of stance. Sasuke jumped up and mimicked him, "That was just an illusion, _stupid!_"

"_Naruto, no guns!_"

"What a _stupid_ thing to waste your energy on."

"I got free, didn't I?" Naruto defended, the injustice clear in his tone.

"Which means I'm only going to catch you again," Sasuke droned monotonously – as if he had no doubt in his mind that he'd beat Naruto as many times as he needed to.

They lunged at each other and Mikoto was yelling again in that way where she almost sounded stern; it was obvious that she was far more worried than angry so the boys mostly ignored her. They were very rough and tumble; especially Naruto – he cried even less than Sasuke and Sasuke very rarely cried for a kid.

Actually, Itachi had only seen Naruto cry once and it was when his mother came to pick him up in a car instead of by foot and it had caused quite a few suspicions to arise very abruptly. The adults were always worried about that child.

Itachi always thought Sasuke and Naruto were perfect for each other with their compatibility: like exact opposites with every single matching jagged edge and concave. They were constantly pushing each other toward winning – toward being better; and it was never bad to have motivation.

"Sasuke–!"

But before he could finish, Sasuke pinned him down again, this time back to the ground and he stared right through his eyes because he wasn't stupid – he knew something was going on with Naruto's home life; something other than his dad's untimely and far too early death just over half a year ago. Things were changing about Naruto that were neither age appropriate nor healthy for a child; his paranoia of unrealistic ideals and complete lack of confidence in the adult population only suggested he was neglected.

"You're way too skinny to think you can beat me at wrestling, _dobe_," Sasuke assured in a self-righteous tone.

"_Sasuke!_"

That last one wasn't in his head – Sasuke glanced around as he returned to his surroundings where he wasn't seven years in the past and he wasn't wrestling Naruto as a nine-year-old on the playground they used to both go to as kids.

He was at school, near the back of the science building, and it was the end of the day.

Oh, and Naruto's long-haired brunette friend was addressing him.

"I have to talk to you," Haku demanded in a firm tone as he grabbed Sasuke by the arm near his elbow and yanked him back behind the building in the back-alley where no one ever went, "But not here," he continued in a whisper.

Sasuke glanced at him incredulously.

"No one will come back here, if you're afraid of someone overhearing," Sasuke reminded in an irritated tone. He had very little patience for this sort of thing.

"_No one_ can overhear what I'm going to tell you," he explained unwaveringly; something was different about this boy – he could tell.

"It's about–" he began before Haku silenced him with a finger over his lips in a gesture of shushing him.

_Naruto?_

It had at least spiked his attention enough to meet where the long haired brunette had requested and he was a little shocked at the place he'd chosen; it was a small sandwich deli near his neighborhood and a very good ways away from his own and Naruto's. They sat on the concrete deck outside the building with a couple sodas and the sidewalk between themselves and the road where traffic drowned out a lot of what they said to each other to listening ears should any arrive.

"People in our area know Naruto too well and he's too close to a very powerful person – which unfortunately gives him a very wide range of enemies; I couldn't risk any of them overhearing."

That's what Haku told him when he shot him that inquiring look for the reason of the location he picked. But it made complete sense so he stopped wondering about it. Plus, he really wanted to know about whatever Haku was going to tell him.

"You're that 'teme' person," the long haired teen deemed as he gazed steadfast at Sasuke who looked slightly taken aback. Naruto called him that; but mostly when no one else was around, "So then it's true. Naruto calls you that."

He wasn't asking and there was no request in his tone. He downright read Sasuke's reaction like a book and he wouldn't deny that it was a little impressive.

"Naruto cares very deeply for you – whoever you are; I know your name because we go to the same school, but why do you seem to know each other so well? You barely speak between classes or outside school – at least it appears that way in person. You still talk, _a lot_, but why? I've always wondered that," Haku stated – his questions were very general and his tone wasn't really inquiring. He wasn't trying to delve into Sasuke's personal life and that much was clear, "Naruto never talks about 'yesterday', he's always stuck on 'tomorrow'. Whatever past you two have, cling to it because Naruto needs important people to do well for."

"What does that mean?" Sasuke asked urgently. He wasn't stupid; this was a warning – the crisp wind that hit before the storm.

"It doesn't matter!" Haku asserted as his fingers curled into fists. Sasuke could tell he was getting frustrated, "If I died tomorrow, someone would need to know this!"

"Ok," Sasuke agreed in a careful tone. Haku seemed a little insane – and a good deal frightened, "Are you expecting to die tomorrow?"

"At any moment a car could swerve off the road and kill us both," he reminded in a tone of very sudden indifference. That was true, and Sasuke was willing to approach this hypothetically, "A terrifying existence is trying to crush Naruto's spirit–"

"Who?"

"I can't tell you," Haku insisted quickly but in a patient tone; as if he'd expected to be cut off while speaking, "Naruto thrives on doing things for other people's sake. For whatever reason, when he's doing something for himself, it's second rate effort – and I'm afraid of what would happen if he were isolated from precious attachments in which to fight for. _They_ can't know this so don't repeat it; it's like Naruto's blueprint."

"They?"

"The terrifying existence," he reinforced steadily. It was clear he knew how coded his message was; still, he somehow expected Sasuke to understand – maybe he thought Sasuke knew something he didn't.

"If I died tomorrow, Naruto would push away personal connections – he would assume it was his fault."

"Why would he assume that?" Sasuke asked very urgently. This was getting a little dangerous.

"Naruto often subconsciously feels responsible for things far beyond his control; it's been drilled into his head to think that way – that it was always _his_ fault, for everything. This is becoming irrelevant," Haku deemed suddenly, demeanor becoming uneasy. It was obvious he felt guilty for something and a good deal afraid, "If I died tomorrow, don't let Naruto push you away. Push him into giving a shit because he does, I know he does."

Sasuke's phone vibrated before he could think to respond and his eyes shifted to the screen as it lit up with 'New Message'.

"That's Naruto, isn't it?" Haku asked, eyes never drifting toward the phone; he didn't need to see it, he already knew, "I could always tell when he was talking to _that_ person, to _you_, because of the look in his eyes when he did. The bond you share is more important to him than anything else he possesses. If I died tomorrow, promise me that you'd take care of him," he finished in a pleading tone; Sasuke wasn't so sure about this.

"Haku, what the hell is going on?"

"Who knows? Maybe I'm in love with him," he reasoned easily, eyes watching his reaction with a knowing look that had Sasuke's eyebrows furrowing in unease. The message alone in the small amount of words he spoke sucked the air from his lungs and he tried not to come off as so taken aback; he wasn't sure it was effective, "Of course, this is all hypothetical."

"Right," Sasuke agreed unsurely and suspiciously, "Well then hypothetically I can say sure, whatever, I'll look out for that idiot," he finished sorely; he wasn't sure if Haku's claim on having feelings for Naruto was a passive aggressive way of accusing him of something.

He didn't like Naruto, at least he was pretty sure that's not what it was…he kind of didn't want to know so he just didn't think about it.

"Good!" the long haired brunette deemed with a pretty smile and friendly eyes, "Then hypothetically, I can say I would be able to rest peacefully – of course not if you break our promise though; my spirit would forever haunt you and your ancestors, driving you mad to an early grave."

"Wow, that was pretty dark," Sasuke complimented facetiously; that smirk on Haku's lips looked a little too proud, "Hanging around Naruto has corrupted your thought process – I can tell by your irrational desire to speak before you think."

Haku actually laughed and he shot Sasuke a genuine smile.

"Good," he deemed, completely off topic, "Then everything's going to be ok."

Haku stood and Sasuke watched with incredulous eyes as he left with a small bow of his head in acknowledgement and gratitude.

"Haku, what the hell?"

But Haku didn't acknowledge anything after he left and Sasuke didn't really know how to interpret the conversation they'd just had, so he let him go with a small part of anxiety swirling at the pit of his stomach and nothing more.

He grabbed his phone quickly and slid it up to reveal his keyboard as his eyes read through Naruto's text message – the one Haku told him was from Naruto before he could even open his phone.

A foreign hand pushed the phone back shut while another closed around the hand that was holding his phone and Sasuke jumped slightly as Haku leaned closer.

"You can't tell him I talked to you," Haku whispered from behind him as his cold fingers grasped tightly around Sasuke's own. It was a little threatening and Sasuke was immediately on the defense, "You can't tell anyone. That would have been my dying wish," he finished in a voice hardly even a whisper but somehow filled with so much emotion, Sasuke could do nothing to stop himself from yanking his hand free and letting his phone clatter to the table as Haku pulled back in unison.

"You're becoming rather suspicious," Sasuke warned as he grabbed his phone off the table cautiously and slipped it into the left pocket of his jacket, "But I get your message, ok? I won't say anything," he assured in an irritated tone before his eyes shifted away, "And our promise still stands."

"Would stand – hypothetically," Haku reminded in a breathless voice, "Thank you, Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke wondered when he'd stopped thinking hypothetically and it alarmed him a little that Haku had convinced him with every part of his tone that it hadn't been hypothetical at all – not once.

And he wondered what the hell had just happened.

oOo

Sometimes it just didn't make sense – how stupid could people get? When he said 'don't bring the fucking car to the apartment' he figured it was pretty easy to not bring the fucking car to the fucking apartment.

"Bring it to the warehouse – why the fuck did you bring it here?"

Naruto entered the room just as he spoke and Kyuubi glared with narrowed eyes at him for it – as if it wasn't his home to wander around when he pleased – and Naruto's expression was intent upon hearing Kyuubi's tone.

Kyuubi handed back a set of car keys roughly to the man before him who took off without hesitation and with a good amount of unease in his features. He _should_ feel uneasy – fucking idiot!

"Quit fucking lingering!" he snapped at the blonde who shot the ceiling an unamused look as he continued on his way to the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

Kyuubi watched him vigilantly and with a threatening edge and Naruto ignored it valiantly – his indifference only pissed Kyuubi off but he reigned in his anger because Naruto would get his.

When Naruto's bedroom door shut, Kyuubi pulled out his phone.

oOo

Gaara very rarely received phone calls from unknown numbers but never once did he ignore one because he knew who was calling from that coded number.

"Yes?"

"_Tomorrow at six you'll need to pick something up at the entryway to the alley between the V. O. apartment complex and the warehouse next to it. Don't fuck this up and don't be late_."

And then that was it. The phone was disconnected and he was left with very little information but he doubted it'd be hard to figure out; whatever he needed to get was usually obvious upon arrival.

He dreaded what tomorrow at six would bring.

oOo

A/N: I will say just one thing and you really don't need to read it unless you were one of the people who thought Kushina was selfish. Even if you are that person, you still don't have to read this unless you were wondering why I do not find her selfish at all.

I know Kushina seems like a selfish mother – but I think people forget what poverty actually is. People can't just get a job out of nowhere; especially with no high school education. Enough jobs don't just exist; especially in low-income areas. In my government, which is America and this is sad for such a rich country to have so much poverty, but people in poverty are shoved into tiny areas and cut off from everything they need like government funding for good schools to get the education required to get out of the lifestyle, or food for their innocent children, or _shelter_ from the wind and cold and rain. But literally nothing exists to help these people. Nothing. And no one knows much about it because our shitty government doesn't want to deal with it.

Poverty is one of the worst problems in America and no one really knows about it because of the 1 percent; if you're following this movement – hop on! Seriously – this is the movement of our generation; much like the civil rights movement in the sixties. If you don't believe things are worse between the sixties and now, the opportunity for success of a white child to a black child is 87 to 1. That means, statistically, born white, you are 87 times more likely to be raised in a middle class family able to provide to you an education and allowing you to succeed later in life. That ratio when Dr. Martin Luther King was alive, was 2 to 1. (These are statistics straight out of a text book from an old sociology class) Dr. Martin Luther King actually started inspirational speaking for a movement against the 1 percent (been going on a while, just very hushed up) and later got popular when speaking about civil rights. It was when he went back to touch on the 1 percent that he got shot.

Food for thought.

What Kushina is resorting to is a very common, especially where I grew up. Kushina doesn't have a choice; a lot of women in her situation don't – and most of the youth dealing drugs are in the same boat. When you _need_ money for rent and food and necessities to survive, you'll do anything; especially if you have a kid. You can't just ask some rich parents that don't exist for money or just decide to get money from somewhere else – that's not real; what's real is prostitution and drug trafficking.

For Kushina, it's: do the job which comes with drugs, and pay the bills to shelter her son, or don't work at all and live on the streets which is far more dangerous in her rational mind. Not to mention that heroin has a seriously powerful withdrawal; there's really no way to explain or emphasize how addicting it is until you've actually been addicted to it. It will change any person you know into any person you don't and it's just out of everyone's control. There _are_ things in this world that you can't help or change, that no one can. Even when she's sober, she's always going to think about heroin, at the back of her mind - there won't be a day she doesn't spare a thought toward it; and she can't do a thing about it. It's not so simple as 'chose to do it or not'; if it were, drugs wouldn't be as much of a problem in general.

Ok I'm sorry! See you next week! Unless of course the 1 percent comes after me and assassinates me hahaha.


	4. Chapter 4: XJ37R25

**Chapter Four: X-J-3-7-R-2-5**

_This is how I show my love, I made it in my mind because, I blame it on my A.D.D. baby (1)_

Naruto slid his phone open, silencing the soft ringtone as he put the phone to his ear.

"Yeah?" he answered in a distracted tone as he gingerly, and with disposable gloves over nimble fingers, poured a zip-lock bag full of coke from a bag covered with his fingerprints into a bag _plastered_ in Kyuubi's, filling it far past felony weight with the stash he'd built up over the years.

"_Hey Naruto, I need to talk to you. You free in about fifteen minutes?_"

"Haku?" he questioned as he pulled back his phone to check the phone number once again. It wasn't Haku's number. It wasn't any number he recognized, "What are you doing on a disposable phone?"

"_Never mind_," he dismissed easily, "_Meet me at the diner whenever you can_."

"Ok–uh–"

But before he could finish, he heard a click, and that soft fuzzy noise that accompanies a connected call shut off with it so he pulled the phone off his ear and stared at it for a moment. With furrowed eyebrows and an uneasy sort of feeling at the pit of his stomach, he finished up with what he was doing and he shoved the newly switched bags back behind the books – or the one filled with drugs anyway; he planned on throwing this one, the one with his evidence all over it, out in the dumpster on his way out.

When he got there, Haku looked anxious and he didn't even wait for a hello before delving into conversation.

"Naruto you know where real strength comes from, right?" Haku asked, earning a curious look from the blonde next to him.

"Sure," he replied uncertainly as he squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.

"Just remember how much more determination you can gather when you fight for someone important to you rather than the sake of hatred. Naruto, do you have an important person?"

The tone he used caught Naruto off guard and he couldn't help but feel like Haku was reading his thoughts by the look on his face when Sasuke's name ran through his mind.

"Haku what the hell are you talking about?" Naruto asked cautiously; something was _wrong_.

"I was just – I guess thinking theoretically," he covered easily, earning a thoughtful look in return.

"Ok," the blonde accepted hesitantly, "Why do you sound like you know something?"

"I guess I'm just the suspicious type," Haku reasoned airily enough to throw Naruto off his trail, even if just momentarily.

"_So_ suspicious," he teased with an affectionate smile.

_Naruto, I think I'm in love with him_.

He wanted to say it, but the words just wouldn't leave his throat. It felt like time was speeding up and he wanted to say so many things. But he had something to do and that came first before his personal wants and needs.

"You up for a walk?" he asked as he slipped off his bar stool, Naruto following suit in a silent type of yes.

They walked in silence for a short moment and Naruto wondered why they were headed _this_ way.

"Naruto – about that drop off–"

"Oh, yeah, the one I said I'd do instead? About that, it sounded like a good idea at the time…but I was high, so–"

"Naruto I'm being serious!" Haku pleaded as his fingers curled into frustrated fists, "I'm doing it. Right now actually."

"What? No way, he's really making you do it?"

"He's not making me," the brunette explained uneasily, "I agreed to it because I'm the worst dealer and all – Zabuza said I should, so…"

He trailed off and Naruto was unsure how to even feel about that.

"That's stupid Haku, why do you care so much about what Zabuza says? He's an asshole, isn't he?" Naruto pressed, unable to really empathize with Haku's sudden development of Stockholm.

"Well he's not as bad as Kyuubi," he began to reason before Naruto cut him off with an unamused look.

"Come on, Haku, really? Doesn't he treat you like crap? Doesn't he smack the shit out of you when no one else is there? Why are you letting yourself be ok with that?"

"He doesn't really do that – hit me I mean," Haku admitted softly, earning a taken aback look from the blonde before him.

"Oh," he breathed, unsure how to respond for a moment. Zabuza didn't hit Haku? That was honestly surprising to him and he felt uneasy knowing that he'd misread the man so badly. He'd always just assumed… "Well – congratulations – he doesn't hit you: father of the year," he snapped facetiously.

"Naruto, it's not like that," the brunette began, voice pleading with him to try and understand.

"Whatever, Haku, it doesn't really matter. The height of how fucked up and weird your home-life is, doesn't really matter right now. Seriously Haku, nothing is worth doing this!"

His voice grew progressively more desperate and Haku's steps grew more and more deliberate until they reached a narrow, deep alleyway on a mostly empty road at a place far too close to another where they weren't supposed to go if they didn't want to get shot at or killed and it made Naruto shifty with unease.

"Gaara's dropping it off here," Haku explained, earning a wary look from Naruto.

"But _why_? Why wouldn't he just send it _with_ you? See? This doesn't add up! It's not right, Haku. Something's not right and you know it too. Let's just blow this off, _please_, we can find someone else to buy in like a _second_ and we'll let Kyuubi deal with Gato. Please, Haku."

His voice was pleading and he begged for the brunette to just side with him on this one.

"Zabuza said I should do it," he replied timidly, but in a steadfast tone as his eyes shifted slightly toward the blonde before shifting away once again. He hated to disobey Naruto but he just plain didn't dare to disobey Zabuza.

"Haku _please_–!

His voice was drowned out by the loud screech of tires as a car rounded the corner at the end of the block further down the street and within seconds there was gunfire neither of them could prepare for. He flinched violently and a thick, dark liquid splashed against his chest and neck, small droplets smearing across his whiskered cheeks. Haku fell back against him and he caught the boy instinctively as they hit the ground from the momentum.

The weight above him was too limp and there was a warm liquid blossoming across his chest and he knew it was blood. There was a deafening silence ringing in his ears and he swore the earth was swallowed by some sort of vacuum – it was his best way to describe the fear clenching at his chest.

But it wasn't long before the world slammed back into reality and Naruto was finding it difficult to breathe.

"_Haku!_"

He swiftly and gently rolled the weight off of him as his eyes darted to the immobile features across his face.

Naruto knew he was dead – his eyes were cloudy with death's glaze and he wasn't breathing; but another part of him wasn't really able to believe it so he continued to stare incredulously at the person on the concrete before him.

"_Oh fuck_," he breathed as he reached out to shake him on an impulse of his denial, "Haku, _no_. I –someone! _Help! Please!_"

He didn't know why it took him so long to be screaming for help but once he started, he couldn't really stop and pedestrians close enough to hear him hurried toward the distress in their idea of 'aid', most of them staying a small distance away – afraid to get involved – and a very good amount ran in fear for more gunfire.

"Call an ambulance! _Please!_ Why are you all just watching?"

If anyone was going to call an ambulance, it would have been for Naruto because every single person there that hadn't run yet knew that boy was dead and no ambulance could raise the dead – at least not when they were as dead as Haku.

"Naruto?" a voice called from down the street. Naruto glanced up in time to see Gaara hurrying toward him, eyes filled with unease. Sirens erupted somewhere off in the far distance and Naruto wondered if it was for Haku. Gunfire did raise a siren pretty quickly.

He was too preoccupied to notice that Gaara didn't have anything on him to drop off for Haku; it was never about drugs.

"Gaara, _help me!_"

"Naruto, come away from Haku," Gaara urged quickly as he stood several feet away, avoiding tracking the pool of blood seeping onto the concrete on his shoes. So _Naruto_ was the thing he needed to pick up, "Come on, Naruto, he's dead. You can't do anything for him."

"Gaara! What are you saying? Haku was your friend too!"

The sirens were getting closer and by the crisp ring it left in his ear, Naruto could guess an ETA of just moments.

"Naruto you have to let him go – the police are on the way, _please_, listen to me. We have to get out of here!" Gaara insisted as he held a hand out toward him in a gesture for him to come.

"_What?_" he breathed, eyebrows furrowing as he shook his head slightly.

"Naruto just think of your situation," Gaara explained lowly so only he could hear, "You've probably got a felony's amount of crack in your front pocket. You're gonna get blamed for this. Maybe a jury won't find you guilty, but you'll still be blamed, initially. And you'll do time for the drugs alone."

His eyes shot to the pavement by the gutter where the murder weapon lay, glistening in the early evening light. All the evidence they needed was right here – right in front of him.

The world was closing in on him and he knew that his only window of opportunity was rapidly shutting, and if he didn't go with Gaara within seconds, he probably wouldn't see outside his prison cell until twenty-one at _least_; he couldn't just hire the best lawyer on the east coast like Kyuubi could. He didn't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to blow on whatever he wanted.

He stood slowly, eyes steadfast on Haku, and Gaara grabbed his arm just above his elbow, yanking him down the street and into the alleyway they'd been standing before as they slipped into the darkness of the back-alley shadows.

The sirens were loud enough to give him the urge to want to cover his ears and the crowd on the street dispersed quickly, probably for much the same reason as Naruto and Gaara had to run.

They weren't followed and Naruto was at least thankful for that. Haku had drugs on him too – the police had probably found them and given up on a man hunt. They never really seemed to try as hard to catch the killer when the person murdered was involved with drugs.

Naruto wasn't sure how he made it through the city and up three flights of stairs, but realization hit him when they entered the apartment and he got two similar looks of shock from Gaara's older siblings and he felt suddenly too aware of the blood plastering a small portion of his shirt to his skin near his shoulder.

Haku's blood was all over him.

He tried to strangle down a distressed whine, but it slipped through his lips and he felt his knees grow weak, his hand gripping his shirt where it was soaked heaviest by blood and he pulled at it, in an attempt to get it away from him; it left his hand far more slick than he'd anticipated and he felt dizzy. Haku was dead.

Gaara grabbed him and stumbled slightly to support his weight as his legs gave out and Temari jumped up from the couch with a shocked, "What the hell happened?"

But Gaara ignored her in favor of dragging Naruto to his bedroom. He was having a difficult time breathing and Temari feared that the blood staining his shirt might be his. The splatter across his face though – that was someone else's; she knew that much at least. She followed quickly, Kankuro following suit without hesitation.

"Naruto, take a deep breath," Gaara coaxed urgently as he set him on the edge of his bed. He obeyed hesitantly and it wasn't long before his breathing became more normal and less panicked. Thank God Gaara was here; Gaara could stay composed through anything and his demeanor was easy to mimic because it was such a steadfast calm.

"What happened?" Temari asked again, eyes imploring and uneasy.

His eyebrows furrowed and he gazed toward the floor in disbelief. What the hell _had_ just happened?

He and Haku were leaving the diner. He and Haku were walking down the street toward Haku's pick up location. He was pleading with Haku to abandon the sell. Haku was – backtrack, that wasn't right, was it?

He and Haku were leaving the diner. He and Haku were walking down the street toward Haku's pick up location. He was – there was something he was doing because there was a reason he and Haku left the diner.

He and Haku were…Haku was–

"Naruto, come on, focus," Gaara pleaded, interrupting his line of thought. He glanced up hesitantly, eyes bitter and confused.

"Arms up," he coaxed gently as he tugged on the hem of Naruto's shirt. Naruto obeyed hesitantly before his shirt was lifted up and over his chest and pulled off his head and arms.

"Temari–" the redhead began, gesturing toward the bathroom vaguely. She nodded and turned for it, suspecting what he wanted.

She returned just moments later, carrying two wet washcloths, handing one to Gaara who grabbed it with a grateful 'thanks' under his breath before turning to face Naruto fully. He bent down so he was eyelevel before placing the washcloth on his bare shoulder.

Naruto flinched at the cool object against his skin and he gazed at it accusingly.

"The sooner you accept it, the sooner you can get over it," Gaara whispered as he wiped the blood smeared across the right side of his chest. Naruto didn't respond. He was too incredulous – too absorbed by shock, disbelief, and skepticism.

It would hit him sooner or later.

Temari gazed at him sympathetically for a long moment, still wondering what the hell had happened and feeling somewhat relieved to find the blood smeared across his shoulder came without injury. She reached out with the remaining washcloth and scrubbed softly at the blood splattered across his face.

"Naruto, tell me what just happened," Gaara continued gently. Naruto's features shifted slightly and Gaara wasn't quite sure what he saw there.

"Haku's dead," he stated flatly. Temari dropped the washcloth in shock, her lips parting and hand rising to cover her mouth, "X-J-3-7-R-2-5."

He turned swiftly and sat up on his knees as he faced the wall, using the blood smeared across his palm left from the shirt lying on the floor, to write the seven character sequence across a small part of his wall and Gaara gazed at him skeptically; Naruto ignored it steadily.

"Don't touch this Gaara," Naruto pleaded as he turned away from it, "I have to go," he stated suddenly as he stood from the bed, earning two similar looks of incredulity from the other occupants of the room and the young man standing in the hallway, "Give me my shirt."

"Naruto! Wait!" Temari demanded as she turned to face him completely. But her eyes suddenly shifted toward Gaara's and she pleaded with her features for him to clear things up for her as he handed Naruto a spare shirt of his – one that wasn't covered in blood, "Haku's dead?"

Gaara nodded and she sat back on the mattress behind her. He knew he should remain and comfort her, but Naruto needed Gaara to stop him from leaving the apartment much more urgently. Plus, Kankuro was there, and he was better at empathy than Gaara was.

"Stop," the redhead instructed firmly as he grabbed a thin arm and pulled him away from the door.

"Gaara, I'm fine!" the blonde snapped as he yanked away, hands unlocking the deadbolt on the apartment door.

"Naruto, I think you should stay here for tonight atlea–"

"Fuck off Gaara!" the blonde snapped as he yanked roughly at the door – hard enough to get it halfway open.

Haku was dead. Haku was dead and it was all Kyuubi's fault; _he was gonna kill him!_

All he could see was his anger and he refused to let it just boil beneath the surface; he'd spent seven years doing that and Kyuubi was far past due for the eruption he'd cultured at the bottom of the volcano.

And Gaara wasn't going to stop him.

But that didn't mean Gaara wasn't going to try. He reached out, eyebrows furrowed in unease as he placed a complacent hand on Naruto's shoulder.

But Naruto's arm moved before he could stop it and he knocked the outreach away, eyes lowered and unable to really meet Gaara's. Naruto never rejected an outstretched hand and Gaara felt a little stung that he had now.

Naruto didn't know how to explain how he was feeling because it wasn't something he knew a term for so he didn't bother wasting time and growing further frustrated with stumbling over words.

So he slipped through the front door without another word and Gaara didn't try and stop him this time.

The walk had been infuriating and nowhere near freezing enough to cool his head and by the time he was at the apartment, he was seething, muscles tense and shaking just slightly as he unlocked and opened his front door.

He knew there was still blood on his face and neck and that was just perfect.

Every eye was on him when he slammed the door shut with as much force as he could use.

"What happened?" Zabuza asked instantly, features alert at the sight of blood and the lack of Haku.

"_I knew this would happen!_" Naruto screamed as he approached Kyuubi threateningly.

"What?" Zabuza asked again, this time a little impatiently, and Naruto wasn't sure why he saw unease there.

"He's dead! Haku's dead and it's _all your fault!_ This never would have happened if you didn't make a bunch of kids deal drugs! _Haku shouldn't have gone near a deal like that!_"

Zabuza looked shocked at the news and Naruto had the vague impression that it was the only way he could hide the despair he saw flash momentarily behind his eyes and suddenly, Haku didn't seem so insane anymore for liking Zabuza.

But maybe that was just his irrationality at its peak because he'd do anything to reserve all the hatred in his body solely for Kyuubi.

"_I said I'd do it why didn't you let me?_"

"Do you want to die, Naruto?" Kyuubi asked genuinely, a very small and very detectable amount of approval in his tone.

"No," he assured easily, eyes as determined and hateful toward that man as ever, "But I definitely wouldn't regret dying for someone precious to me. You used him like a tool! Like a game piece you could just throw away–!"

"Kid," Zabuza interrupted, earning a furious glare from the blonde, "Stop talking."

"How can you not care?" Naruto yelled, voice incredulous and full of all the emotion he'd been burying, "Haku was so nice to you! _He's dead!_"

Zabuza stood from the couch and left for the apartment door without another word and Naruto watched him go with incredulous eyes; he was pretty sure Zabuza was on the verge of crying, but his departure had been so quick he couldn't confirm. Plus, it could have been anger which wouldn't be all that uncommon and it was probably just anger with Gato for fucking with them more than anger with fate for taking Haku away – but then again Naruto wasn't a psychologist so what the fuck would he know?

But suddenly his anger returned and he turned to face Kyuubi, eyes furious and fingers curling into angry fists. He hated the person before him with such a burning passion it was difficult to explain just how fired up he felt. It really was overwhelming and he felt very little rationality swirling around in the ideas forming in his head. Kyuubi was the only one who could ever get to him like this and he hated it; a deep seeded and well-nourished hatred for someone like Naruto's for Kyuubi wasn't healthy, and Naruto could see the toll it had taken on his person in the past. He was far more cynical now than he used to be.

"So, your buddy's dead. What are _you_ gonna do about it?" Kyuubi taunted, unaware of just how angry Naruto really was.

Whatever followed next was difficult to wrap his head around. He reared back and his fist flew fast and hard against the left side of Kyuubi's jaw and all hell broke loose. They fell to the floor and Naruto landed atop the red haired man and he didn't hesitate for a second to take advantage of the situation. He pulled his fist back before swinging it forward once, twice, a third time and he reared back for the fourth but his wrist was caught midair and he was quickly jerked back off Kyuubi as he was both beaten and restrained into submission.

Kyuubi sat up and Naruto wished he hadn't. He didn't doubt that this night would end with him in the hospital – or dead.

So it was without much surprise at all that Kyuubi didn't hesitate to proceed to beat the crap out of him and it wasn't until some immeasurable amount of time later that he was shoved against the wall as the hands restraining his wrists disappeared and he slid to the floor, unable to move much on his own, and only able to sit up with the aid of the wall behind him. That was why they felt safe letting him go – they knew he couldn't fight back anymore; at least not for a little while.

Kyuubi kneeled down before him and leaned closer until his breath ghosted across the back of his neck.

"Are we having fun yet?" Kyuubi hissed in a dangerously low tone. Naruto's eyes shifted toward the back of the man's head before darting away as he attempted to focus on breathing evenly – or at all; that'd be nice too. The air hadn't really returned to his lungs yet and he arched his back slightly as the muscles lining his diaphragm continued to spasm painfully, "That's a yes then," Kyuubi continued as he pulled back enough to watch Naruto's eyes shut tightly closed, a soft groan escaping his lips as his lungs slowly allowed him to draw in air.

He needed to get Kyuubi out of his apartment. This was close to the worst he'd been beaten so far and Kyuubi didn't look halfway done. As of right now, he had no fatal or concerning injuries that wouldn't go away after a week or two. But he doubted that much would be true if Kyuubi continued and he was pretty sure he was getting ready for round two with a pep talk full of putting Naruto down.

"Fu-k'off, piece f'shit," he choked out, eyes glaring defiantly at Kyuubi – daring him to do it.

Kyuubi reared back and Naruto moved just enough to send the fist aimed at his jaw into the wall behind him. He grabbed the man's elbow with a steadfast grip for someone in his position and a quick tug sent his forehead through the wall next; it was primarily a combination between Kyuubi's lack of balance in his shock and gravity that did most of the work – but Naruto had instigated it, so he was guilty. And thank god there wasn't a beam in the wall behind him because otherwise it wouldn't have worked half as well.

Kyuubi yanked himself free easily and backhanded Naruto hard enough to send him the rest of the way to the floor. The attack caused literally no physical injury to Kyuubi; the walls were too thin to cause any actual damage, but that was the very last thing that mattered at the moment.

Naruto. _Wouldn't_. _Break!_ It was really starting to piss him off! His features turned refined but angry and he shook his head as he slowly rose to leave the room. Naruto knew what he was going to get so he had a second while Kyuubi loaded the needle. He pushed himself back up and grabbed the cordless phone off the side table to his left before kicking it over to distract the attention of the remaining members of Kyuubi's gang as they tripped over themselves to pick up the drugs previously sitting atop that knocked over table.

Naruto turned the phone on and dialed 9-1-1 quickly before clicking the volume on the speaker down as low as it would go and tossing it under the couch to his right. It skirted out of view and Naruto felt a rush of liberation with how silent the voice on the other end was – he couldn't hear a thing.

At least they would be able to trace it since it was a landline and Naruto prayed the 9-1-1 receiver wasn't stupid enough to just hang up on the lack of direct acknowledgement.

But Kyuubi was back in the room, screaming a colorful variety of threatening things at him for ruining so much perfectly good coke and that was probably enough for any person to know that they should stay on the line.

The jackpot? Apparently he'd kicked over Kyuubi's stash. Fate was always generous to Naruto.

He kneeled down next to Naruto and grabbed his right arm with one hand while the other brought a needle dangerously close to his skin.

But Naruto still had another hand and a lot more fight; he didn't think he could get up, or walk or run yet – his breathing had yet to fully return to him – but he'd been able to send Kyuubi's head through a wall and grab the phone before kicking over the table so this shouldn't be too hard. His fist came up with difficulty but he was able to hit Kyuubi steadfast in the brachial artery of the arm holding him down, causing him to pull back and cup the area in incredulity.

"Get the fuck over here!" Kyuubi yelled toward the group sweeping up the drugs. Kimimaro came first and Naruto tensed as he approached. Kimimaro was always particularly rough with him when Kyuubi was angry.

There was a fist in his gut before moved up toward his chest until the forearm was pressed firmly against his collarbone, pinning him to the wall while his left wrist was grabbed and yanked over his head at a painful angle. Kyuubi yanked his right wrist straight out and the momentum almost sent him to the floor but he was able to steady himself not to fall over; although, he couldn't straighten back up because of the arm pinning him to the wall. The position was uncomfortable and he couldn't breathe well with Kimimaro pinning him so firmly.

Kyuubi froze and Naruto wondered what his sudden hesitation could mean – he'd never stuttered or wavered before and Naruto feared for the potential of things it could be causing him to start now.

His eyes followed Kyuubi's to the kitchen at his right and both eyes landed on the steadfast red light on the receiver for the phone.

"Who's on the phone?" Kyuubi asked as he released Naruto before glaring at Kimimaro to keep him in place as he investigated; Kimimaro grabbed the newly released arm with the arm that had been pinning his chest to the wall and Naruto felt relieved to be able to breathe a little easier.

Kyuubi searched around for the phone but didn't bother sounding the alarm on the answering machine because the phone was connected to another line right now and it wouldn't go off.

After several short moments of his gaze sweeping the apartment, he stalked over to the machine and pressed the speaker button and distant voices wafted through the apartment immediately.

"–_d line has been traced. Law enforcement on route. Medical personnel dispatche_–"

Kyuubi ended the call with an angry yank of the chord on the telephone line and he turned to glare at Naruto.

Every eye was on Naruto before shifting to Kyuubi – the silence was overpowering.

"Load the shit, you fucking cokeheads!" Kyuubi yelled while every inhabitant of the room save for Kimimaro shot up and darted around, gathering every type of drug paraphernalia and any money left in the stashed areas they could, loading them into carts and running them out periodically into the van at the corner of the parking lot saved there for these occasions.

Kyuubi walked back into the hallway and Naruto didn't like the way he had so vigilantly ignored him – it was only a bad sign.

He closed his eyes tightly against the firm grip still pinning his wrists to the wall and swallowed thickly as he heard Kyuubi round the corner to return to the living room.

"Let's see if the paramedics get here in time," the man suggested coyly as he quickly yanked his wrist free from Kimimaro's grasp and pierced his skin with the needle with ease. Shit, Naruto realized as he stiffened slightly; Kyuubi had put quite a bit more in there since the last time that needle almost entered his skin.

But Naruto wasn't too worried. They'd get here in time; he was positive. That's why he'd been willing to make the gamble to begin with. He read the statistics – most heroin overdose related deaths took place an hour to three hours after injection. He had a little time, he was positive. He _had_ to call 9-1-1 and he _had_ to get Kyuubi out of the room to do it. Getting him angry enough to leave and load a needle of the thing Naruto hated more than anything else was the only idea that came to his mind that didn't seem suspicious. And _hey_, it had worked. The paramedics were on the way – and the police too.

Naruto was shoved to the floor and he didn't even try to move because he didn't know what the fuck was happening or where the hell he was but everything felt wrong and weird and he was uneasy because he wasn't sure if he was breathing and he was pretty sure he was supposed to be breathing.

Oh, that's right, Kyuubi drugged the hell out of him. He was lying in his living room, close to the kitchen and _shit_ Kyuubi's guys cleaned out _quickly_. But he also knew he probably had a very poor perception on time.

Kyuubi stood and watched as Naruto struggled to breathe evenly, Kimimaro following suit and exiting to help load the car.

"Whether you survive this or not, your mother is fucked. Rest easy, dead or alive; you'll see me sooner than you'd expect."

Naruto groaned in an attempt at speech because he knew Kyuubi wasn't kidding and he wanted to take it back because – _he'd do anything!_ As long as Kyuubi left his mom alone.

He wasn't sure how much time was passing but it was quite in here and it was never quite here. The change set him at an even _steeper_ unease and he waited for something – _anything_ to happen. His eyes landed on the skirt of the couch and he knew the phone was still under there. He could call 9-1-1 back, but that was unrealistic when he remembered that Kyuubi yanked the cord from the wall. Plus, even if the phone would work, it'd be unnecessary to call again – he had already confirmed help was on the way. He wasn't even really sure that he could move that far to grab it.

At some point, he was pretty sure he heard the door open but that wouldn't make sense considering it was probably locked – then again, Kyuubi had been in a hurry to get the hell out so he doubted he wasted his time locking up the place, not to mention that Naruto's safety was, probably in a very literal sense, the last thing on Kyuubi's mind.

An EMT kneeled down next to him and Naruto tried to concentrate because he was pretty sure the man was addressing him. Some part of his mind wondered if it was real but a significantly greater part agreed that it looked too real to be fake; that was possible, right? It was possible to have rationality while drugged this heavily _right_?

God he hoped so. Thinking otherwise made him feel slightly insane.

"I think this is drug related," the EMT stated as he glanced over his shoulder at his companion who rushed to join him at Naruto's side, "Look at his arm, there's the injection site, and there's a freshly used needle _right here_."

"No way," he countered as his eyes darted toward Naruto's features, "He's way too young!"

"I don't think it was consensual; look at the bruise on his wrist – it looks like someone held him down," the man explained as he pointed out the evidence, his fingers hooking under Naruto's sleeve and pulling it back slightly to get a better view of his entire arm, "He's covered in bruises!" he realized as he lifted the shirt to glance at his chest too.

"Hey, Kotetsu! He's not getting enough oxygen!"

Kotetsu glanced over at his pale blue lips and he noticed how slowly his chest was rising and falling.

"Shit," he swore under his breath as he reached for the blonde's bony shoulder, "Izumo, help me move him onto his back. We need to get him to the hospital. They need to figure out what drug it is as soon as possible."

Naruto's lips parted and he raised a hand in an attempt to get the man's attention.

"Smack–" he breathed in a cluttered tone. He wondered if anyone even heard him but he felt too winded to try again.

"What's that?" Kotetsu encouraged, "Smack? As in heroin?"

Naruto nodded slightly and the movement left the room spinning. Thank god the EMT hung on to street terms; Naruto was positive he didn't have the air in his lungs to get out the three syllables to say 'heroin'.

"Naloxone, Izumo!"

Izumo didn't hesitate to turn to their large box of medications and scanned quickly through the labels lining the vials of medication.

With nibble accuracy, he plucked a vial and prepared a precise point-four milligrams, carefully but swiftly.

"Good job, kiddo," Kotetsu encouraged as he brushed back sweaty bangs from Naruto's clammy forehead, "We're gonna help you, ok?"

Naruto smiled weakly in acknowledgement but it slipped away slowly because he wasn't sure he remembered how to breathe suddenly. His eyes shifted toward the patch of skin being cleaned gently where the needle was soon after inserted and he stared at it oddly because he couldn't even feel it – or the hands touching his arm, or the elastic strip tied around his upper arm.

Actually, he couldn't feel _anything_.

And he was so tired.

"Kotetsu, _hey_, he stopped breathing," Izumo warned uneasily.

"Give the drug a second," Kotetsu requested softly as his eyes searched Naruto's chest for any sign of movement. He said the words with confidence but he was grabbing his easy seal mask in case they needed to give him rescue breathing.

Naruto felt everything slowing down. There was a heavy mist over his vision and he was pretty sure he'd never been as tired in his life. He'd been fighting it off for what felt like hours or minutes or days – probably seconds – and it really felt impossible to flee from it any longer. He wanted to sleep and he felt like he was hit with a bus but it kind of felt good.

Something swept across his senses and he felt like the world was coming back to him with consecutively growing amounts each time he blinked; like a slow drip of mist, floating across the skin on his face and pressing away the fatigue with vigor.

He was sort of short-winded and the pain flared in his lungs to remind him to breathe, so he did and he didn't stop because it wasn't necessary to remind himself to anymore – he could tell by how cool his skin felt; it was an odd way of describing it, he knew. But there were sensations that came with heroin that didn't have proper terms of definition.

His awareness returned to him quickly but with it came the pain of his injuries and he was blown away by how numb he'd been to it before. His eyebrows furrowed and he hissed softly at the burn of his muscles.

He undoubtedly preferred this state though. He hated the state of mind heroin put him in; it gave him an anxiety in a proportion he couldn't explain.

"You back with us?" Kotetsu asked, eyes attempting to catch Naruto's.

Naruto glanced up at him, registering the words for a long moment before he decided to respond.

"I didn't want to do it–" he began to explain in an uneasy tone before Izumo cut him off with a raised hand. Naruto felt conflicted about following his order; they had to know – he wasn't doing drugs. The police didn't need to get involved.

"We already figured that much. We're only here to help you, so calm down, ok? Try and focus on taking deep, even breaths for the next couple minutes. Do you have a name, kiddo?"

But his blue eyes shifted toward the hallway as a set of police officers drifted through, eyes sweeping the apartment in disapproval and his features turned forlorn as he forced his eyes to the ceiling. Of course the police would already be here; they'd be the first to arrive with the type of call he placed – and for him to think otherwise was naïve.

He would be in foster care by the end of this evening.

"Shit," he swore under his breath as he rolled to sit up. The paramedics moved to help him but he swatted their hands away; the police were moving this way and he didn't need to look in any worse shape than he already did – he was pretty sure he had at least a gram of weed in his front pocket.

"Hey there," one of them addressed as she kneeled before him, attempting to catch his gaze, "My name is Anko and this is my partner Asuma. We're police officers; we want to help you, ok?"

Naruto stared away, avoiding her gaze steadfast and without fail.

"Can you tell us what happened tonight?"

His eyes shifted to hers and he stared at her for a long moment before shaking his head in response because no, he couldn't tell her _anything_ about what happened tonight and he didn't feel like visiting prison before foster care because he had a good fifty-thousand dollars of coke stashed away in his bookcase – _holy shit_ he prayed they wouldn't search around much; but he knew they would.

"Do you live here?" Anko pressed, trying to spark some sort of fire to fuel the train of conversation toward finding out what had happened.

Naruto nodded in affirmation and Asuma kneeled down next, joining the height of the conversation.

"Does someone live here with you?"

It wasn't really a question of who lived here, but where they were because it was probably almost seven by now and someone _should_ be home; in an ideal situation he supposed.

"My mom."

"Is she here right now?"

The question caught Naruto a little off guard because…he wasn't actually sure. He hadn't checked when he got home – he merely flew through the door to attack Kyuubi. He hadn't been past the living room the entire time he'd been here.

She probably wasn't home – Kyuubi would have taken her with him if she was.

And then, it sort of hit him. Haku was _dead_. Haku was dead, his mom was probably having the crap beat out of her _right now_ for what he did this evening, he was sore as hell, and he wouldn't be here when his mom got home later tonight, or tomorrow night because nights like these ones never failed to end with his custody in a legally suitable pair of hands instead of his own mothers'.

Everything he did backfired somehow.

"I dunno," he mumbled as he pulled his knees up toward his chest, arms crossing over his kneecaps and forehead resting on his crossed forearms, "Her room's the last door down the hall."

It's not like they wouldn't be checking it anyway. Besides, he was far too preoccupied with forcing back the sob rising in his throat.

Asuma stood and left to check while Anko sat back on her heels to get comfortable.

Naruto could only choke back half a sob and he quickly, and with a frustrated edge to his posture, rubbed the tear tracks away from his cheeks before anyone could really see he was crying at all. Three pairs of eyes were on him instantly and he stared away pointedly as his re-crossed his arms over his knees and curled, just slightly, into himself.

He could feel the pressure in his chest building as he buried the urge to cry and it _hurt_ and he was positive it wasn't healthy but he wasn't doing this in front of these people.

"Are you in pain?" Kotetsu asked quickly as he scooted closer, eyes searching Naruto's features.

"It's nothing," he breathed, unsure that he could provide any stronger of a tone without his voice wavering. He couldn't explain that he'd just seen his best friend die – couldn't explain that some of the blood on his face and neck probably wasn't his; the cops where here and they wouldn't take even a very subtle answer like that loosely.

Anko furrowed her eyebrows as she watched him shut off before her eyes – far worse than he already was closed off and she assumed he was upset with what he knew was probably coming. Most kids they found like this knew how the system worked.

Asuma returned and Naruto loosely noticed that his mother wasn't with him.

"Here's the deal," Asuma began as Naruto shifted his eyes toward him to acknowledge he was listening before shifting them away once more, "We can't let you stay here. There are some unsafe living conditions for a minor here from what we're forced to assume."

"I know," he replied monotonously, unwilling to delve into details. His demeanor alone was enough to give away that he'd done all this before and both officers dropped the formality. His control was returning and he felt himself relax slightly at the feeling of it. He could do this – it'd all be ok; he just refused to give up.

"Do you know who your social worker is?" Anko asked as she pulled a small pad of paper out to write down his answer should he have one.

"Yuhi Kurenai," Naruto supplied easily before glancing over at Asuma who looked pleasantly surprised at the name.

"Kurenai?" he asked while Naruto nodded in confirmation, "She's my fiancé," he explained with an adorning smile, "She's an amazing woman, you're lucky to have her."

Naruto smiled in appreciation because actually, he _agreed_; he'd always held a familiar and profound distain for Child Protective Services because he was handling the problem just fine on his own. But Kurenai was different from the rest of the people who associated with the program. He always thought of her as a separate entity.

Shit, he'd better get a bag together that he could take to the hospital. As long as he got it there, it wouldn't be searched. CPS would search every sock, book, bag, or shoe he brought into foster care – all because of that record.

"Yeah, she's really great. I wish I could know her through something other than CPS."

"What's your name, sweetheart," Anko interrupted with a tinge to her voice that sounded harsh and something close to jealous. Naruto wasn't sure Asuma's partner cared much for his engagement. He was also pretty sure he didn't like being called sweetheart.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

"I'm gonna go make a call," Anko stated before standing and heading toward the apartment door.

"Naruto," he glanced toward the paramedic furthest from him, "This is a dose of Naloxone; statistics say you might need it in the future," Izumo explained bluntly as he handed over a small shot of the very drug that just saved his life.

"Actually I appreciate that. Thanks a lot," Naruto assured as he stared down at his newly acquired resource.

"If you ever need to use it, you just stab it – like an Epipen, ya know," Kotetsu explained vaguely. Naruto smiled a little before nodding in 'understanding'.

Naruto's gaze shifted down again before returning to Asuma and he implored with his eyes for approval for the request he had lying on his tongue.

"Can I grab some stuff? I kind of have school tomorrow."

"Sure, grab what you need," the man encouraged. Naruto looked grateful for his understanding and he struggled to get to his feet.

Asuma pulled him up with a swift tug and Naruto looked a little out of sorts for the help but shook it off and continued on his way toward his bedroom. He liked that Asuma didn't treat him like a kid that couldn't navigate through his own home like most adults did; something about how he spoke to Naruto made him feel less inferior and he couldn't help but respect him for it.

He was stiff but his muscles were warm with a sense of determination because he had to do something now and he had to do it perfectly or everything he'd worked toward the past two years would have been for nothing.

He slipped into his room and closed his door over; he didn't want to close it all the way, it might raise suspicion. He reached into his bookcase and grabbed the binders and texts lining the small unit of the first section of the bottom row, pulling them out and stacking them on the floor. He absentmindedly set the Naloxone down on the empty shelf next to the two binders that remained leaning against the wooden edge of the framing as he reached for the tissue box in the shelf just above the one he was investigating before grabbing the bag of drugs with tissue-covered fingers. He slipped the zip-lock bag into Kyuubi's old t-shirt and wrapped it up as he set it at the bottom of the bag.

He spotted his school bag and the binders and texts inside followed suit. He lined them up precisely before throwing a pencil in with the mix and zipping it up.

He scooped up the first pair of clean clothes he saw and exited the room, backpack slung over one shoulder and clothes slung over the same arm while his free hand scraped across the backpack on his back in search of the other strap for his shoulder.

With a hiss of pain, his arm slipped through the strap, sliding the backpack across his back. Asuma glanced at him suspiciously and Naruto avoided his gaze because he knew what that slipup had cost him.

"So who hits you?" he asked, earning a tired and somewhat contemplative look from the boy before him.

"My mom's stupid _boyfriend_, or whatever you want to call the type of people like him," he replied vaguely in a horribly bitter tone. It didn't matter by now, his social worker was probably already on her way to the hospital to meet him there – not that he really felt like he needed to go anymore. Sure, he was sore as hell, but he'd taken a lot of beatings in his life and he was used to forcing himself to endure through it without complaint.

Besides, it's not like they could get any sort of answer out of that. It would probably go down in some file in a paraphrased way and never looked at again because he would be in foster care by the end of the night and that equaled 'case solved' – if that; Kyuubi wasn't technically his guardian so he was always treated far less harshly when convicted for hurting Naruto. He bet everything he owned that they wouldn't be so lenient if he didn't have a record, but he could never really know for sure.

As for the hospital, they probably wanted to monitor him for relapse because 0.04 milligrams of naloxone only lasted about forty-five minutes and he'd been administered a good four or five hour trip. He wouldn't be surprised if he needed a second dose and the EMTs probably had every intention of bringing him to the hospital for observation.

As if to read his mind, the EMT began to explain all this to him when he returned to the living room and he just listened, eyes downcast as he nodded somewhat numbly in all the right places because he felt a tinge of irritation at having it explained to him when he already knew, but he silenced himself because it was this man's job and he probably hated having to explain things over and over just as much as Naruto hated hearing it again.

His back throbbed from standing so long with the weight of his bag weighing down his shoulders and he grit his teeth to stop himself from showing it.

It was going to be a long night.

oOo

Uchiha Sasuke was called many things, and patient was usually one of them.

However, his patience was wearing thin as he tapped angrily at a key on his keyboard, eyebrows furrowed as he glared through the computer screen in an attempt to scare it into doing what he wanted.

"Oi, Sasuke," his brother's voice interrupted as he turned to glare at him instead. Itachi backpedaled half a step and he gave Sasuke a suspicious look for a long moment, "Were you having a moment?" he asked in a suggestive tone, eyes on the frozen computer screen. Sasuke just glared back, features void of amusement.

The page refreshed suddenly with a soft click and Sasuke turned to see it quickly before his features turned angry.

"God damn it," he swore to himself, eyes gazing at the small picture at the top of the browser and the lack of a certain 'congratulations'.

"You have a problem," Itachi confronted suddenly as he approached the younger abruptly, sitting on the end of the bed closest to the desk where Sasuke was sitting, "Stop pouring your life into auctioning websites."

Sasuke didn't look impressed as he shut his laptop and leaned back in his chair, arms crossing over his chest as he spun the chair around to face his brother.

Sasuke loved old things.

If he could be called sentimental for one thing, it was the unique and classic way old things looked – mechanisms especially, like old clocks and small trinkets with handmade cogs and springs. Old things were so adaptive and he couldn't help but marvel over the craftsmanship of it all.

It wasn't something you could do with a cookie cutter furbishing; like that kind Ikea was particularly fluent with.

"Was there something I could do for you?" Sasuke asked in a snappish tone.

"Actually I did have a reason for coming in–" Itachi began before the door opening cut him off.

"Sasuke?" his mother began as she knocked softly on the half-open bedroom door.

"Come in," he welcomed sarcastically since she already had without warning.

But he immediately regretted his tone by the look on her features and he apologized with the way his features sobered in reply.

"Naruto's at the hospital. We need to go pick him up."

oOo

Here comes Sasuke! You guys have been so patient :)

1. I know it doesn't make sense for Naruto's ringtone to be an English song if the story is based in Japan. I know. Let's enjoy the fiction like nature of my fan-fiction and nobody talk about it shhhh. (And the lyrics were from the song Sail by Awolnation which I do not own)


	5. Chapter 5: The Academy

Just to clear something up because someone brought up a really good point to me – a reviewer asked if Naruto would be addicted to heroin too, because they weren't too familiar with drugs. I'm sorry, because I was sort of insensitive in that aspect; I should have explained it better. Naruto doesn't get heroin very often; quite the opposite actually. He can probably count the number of times he's had it on one hand. Kyuubi doesn't use it on him often, just when he's more angry than usual or when Naruto really riots against him. To get addicted to heroin your body has to develop a physical dependence on the substance and, although it doesn't take long to create that dependence, it won't happen when the drug isn't taken a lot or in quick succession.

**Chapter Five: The Academy**

When the Uchiha's arrived at the hospital, it was to find something Sasuke hadn't anticipated. Usually Naruto was brought straight to them and he usually looked injured somehow as it was. The fact that they were getting him straight from the hospital had him worried.

But when they arrived at his room, he shouldn't have been surprised as to why they had to come to him.

He was yelling – profanely – as he strained against the restraints holding his wrists down to the hospital bed.

"–_come back!_ Piece of _shit!_ _Let me out–!_"

"I'm sorry," a nurse apologized as she stopped them before they could enter his room. It was a small room at the end of the hall with a sign that forbid entrance from anyone other than hospital personnel and CPS. Naruto wasn't aware of their presence yet – he continued to struggle uselessly against the restraints as me mumbled frequent and colorful swearwords as if they were a language of their own, a good, distinct 'fuck' or 'shit' careering out of his mouth on very frequent intervals.

He turned over on his right shoulder, wrists still restrained to the bed frame, before heaving against the restraint with all the weight he could possibly throw from this position as he rolled over the opposite way, the bedframe giving a loud groan of protest from the strain of it.

"Why did you tie him down?" Mikoto almost yelled as the door shut behind the nurse exiting his room.

"He _needs_ to stay here for at least the next four hours; he was heavily drugged when they found him and, although he's fine now, there's a very good chance he could still have overdose symptoms when the Naloxone wears off. The paramedics said he seemed completely fine with it at first but something set him off halfway here. It's understandable; Naloxone treatment often causes severe agitation," the nurse explained while Mikoto's features progressively grew more empathetic.

"You're his foster parents, right? His social worker signed his papers just before you got here granting you access to the room. Maybe you guys can calm him down," she added in a soft voice, "If he doesn't stop struggling, we're going to have to strap the rest of him down because he's not leaving until I sign his discharge papers and I'm not picking up a pen until four hours from now."

Mikoto swept past the nurse first without a word as she pushed the door open and Naruto stilled instantly, eyes far from surprised but somewhat sheepish for his behavior. He couldn't help it really – he felt so irrational and he couldn't stable himself mentally because everything was _really fucked up!_ This was the drug's fault right?

"Naruto-kun, you stop that. They're just trying to help," the woman reminded in a very soft and somehow powerfully stern tone that had Naruto shifting his eyes away in fear of further scolding – if it could even be called that; Sasuke's parents were _way_ easy on him.

Sasuke entered next and Itachi followed closely after, Fugaku holding up the rear.

They didn't let Sakura come. Fugaku refused to allow it and had even attempted to persuade Mikoto into waiting at home because he had no idea what would be awaiting them at the hospital and he cared at least a little for Naruto's pride.

But even suggesting it had been farfetched and Mikoto had promptly smacked Fugaku across the back of the head for it. There was no way she was waiting at home while Naruto was at the hospital.

"Hi Mimi," he greeted softly, eyes still steadfast on the wall opposite from the door.

As much as he wanted to hate it, he loved being with Sasuke's family.

Mikoto's features softened considerably and her posture melted as she approached his bed, pulling the closest chair along with her.

"Look at you," she whispered as she placed a gentle hand on his whiskered cheek, just below the small cut stretching down his left temple; there was a dark bruise beneath it.

Naruto's eyes finally shifted over to meet hers.

"You should see the other guy," he joked in a light tone with a soft smile, voice soft from exhaustion and the numbing pain set throughout his body at a dull throb.

Mikoto had tried to keep the tears brimming under her eyes from spilling down her cheeks but it was difficult to do when Naruto did things like this.

"You don't have to put on a brave face," she assured gently, earning a heavy look from the blonde as he leaned back further into his pillows.

"It's not like that," he breathed, before his eyes shifted toward the magnetic pull of Sasuke's own gaze.

They stared at each other for a long moment before Sasuke moved to approach him and Naruto pulled his legs up to cross his legs; the head of his bed was propped up high enough for it not to be uncomfortable.

Sasuke sat at the edge of the bed and immediately leaned over toward his right arm, fingers finding the buckle on the leather cuff around his wrist with nimble accuracy. The nurse didn't move to stop him when he pulled the strap out of the buckle.

Naruto's curled fingers clenched tighter but just slightly and Sasuke placed an apologetic hand across his forearm before continuing; he had to tighten it to get the clasp out of the hole in the leather and he knew it must have hurt by how badly bruised his wrist already was from whatever happened to land him here.

Only moments after his wrist was released and as Sasuke moved toward his left wrist, he turned on his left side as his stomach clenched with painful spasms and he was somewhat sidelined by the side effects he'd been lucky enough to forget about while the Naloxone was still in his bloodstream; it had been about half an hour since it'd been administered first and his forceful struggling only pumped it through his system faster – he had no idea the high would return with such force so soon.

His arm draped across his stomach and he felt the air in his lungs leave him in a soft grunt of discomfort that he couldn't have bit back even _if_ he'd had the time to prepare to try. Sasuke pulled back and shot him a worried look while Mikoto leaned closer, eyes uneasy.

"Hey, dobe," Sasuke began as he leaned back over, eyes searching for Naruto's which clenched tightly shut against the pain, "Should I get the nurse?" he asked urgently.

Naruto nodded and Mikoto waved over the nurse filling out a chart at the door while Sasuke jumped off the bed to give Naruto his space back should he need it. She hurried over to take his vitals and he tried not to look completely lost when he was eased over onto his back and the bed was lowered so he was lying flat. His arm was released from the remaining restraint but he couldn't really move independently anymore and he was trying to focus on staying somewhere within reality; he hated the idea of any of them seeing him like this.

The nurse pulled back his eyelid and she noticed his pinpoint pupils. His vitals were fine but his symptoms were returning as the efficiency of the antagonist wore off; it was just as the head nurse had predicted.

"Here's the deal," she began as she turned to face Mikoto as she spoke, "The Naloxone has worn off and his symptoms of intoxication are returning. We don't like to give a second dose unless the patient has significant respiratory distress as it could cause adverse effects; most likely he'll be fine without a second infusion but his symptoms – we can't do anything about those. He'll just have to ride it out on his own for the most part."

Naruto became a little delirious for an excruciatingly long fifteen minutes and Sasuke really felt fear boiling the pit of his stomach when Naruto didn't directly acknowledge any of them. He would answer here and there when they asked him something, but it was usually unrelated and difficult to understand from the combination of the tired slur of his words and his low tone. Every few minutes he would furrow his eyebrows as he would rub at his forearm, mumbling something uneasily, and Sasuke wondered what he thought was there.

And then he slowly slipped off somewhere else entirely where it was much quieter, because he seemed to be listening intently to something as his hazy eyes stared unseeingly at nothing in particular upon the ceiling.

"Hey, mom," Sasuke suddenly realized as he jumped, leaning forward toward Naruto's distant features, "His lips look a little blue."

The nurse near the door happened to hear him and she came rushing in to confirm.

She took a quick glance at his vitals before excusing herself swiftly as she rushed toward the nurses' station. When she returned only moments later, she paused the drip on the IV before pushing a second dose of Naloxone and Sasuke wasn't even sure it did anything before Naruto's tired eyes shifted and he gazed with unfocused eyes knowingly at the IV where the nurse was previously cleaning the port. His gaze shifted toward her as she pressed specific buttons on the IV pole before the drip grinded back to life.

"How're you feeling?" she asked when she felt his gaze from her right.

He shrugged before shifting his gaze away. He was sad – excruciatingly so. He was pretty sure it was the sobriety that made it this overwhelming and he wasn't sure anymore if he liked Naloxone. He prayed he could keep it together at least long enough to get home and tucked away in the room he knew was waiting, untouched for him back at the Uchiha's. None of the things in there probably fit him anymore, but who knows – he didn't grow as much in the past two years as he'd hoped to.

Sasuke had. But then again, Sasuke didn't do drugs, stay up for nights on end rolling on Adderall or Coke, smoke pot and cigarettes, and he was pretty sure Sasuke's mom had him sit down at the dinner table for at least two out of three meals a day.

Naruto got whatever he could pay for with his EBT but it usually ran out five or six days before next month's credits came in and then it was whatever he could steal to hold him over.

That was when things were worst – when everyone was broke because they were waiting for payday or their government check and everyone was petulant because everyone was hungry; it was when Kyuubi was most irritable because a bunch of assholes owed him money and it was when Naruto spent most nights with synapses firing in a drug induced recharge.

He was positive Sasuke didn't do that but then again Sasuke didn't have to deal with Kyuubi – the drugs just barely made Naruto capable of doing so.

The next several hours passed very slowly and Naruto felt more than ready to leave when midnight rolled around, marking the end of his four hour requirement.

His vitals were taken once more as his IV was removed and the nurse hummed in optimism at the numbers she saw.

"How are you feeling?"

"Great!" he promised in optimism, "Just tired."

"You can go straight to bed when we get home," Mikoto promised in a gentle tone that earned her a grateful look mixed with something only Sasuke could really identify; like it was exactly what he'd wanted to hear. Naruto had grown quite manipulative.

Sakura had been waiting for them at the kitchen table when they got home and Sasuke was only just barely able catch her around the waist with one arm as he dragged her back a few feet before she could wrap her arms around him as she'd intended; her eyes landed on him immediately and she didn't need any further explanation now that she got a good look.

"Hey Sakura-chan," he greeted with a tired smile.

She looked as if she were holding back tears as she breathed back a delicate 'Hi'. How long had it been?

"You look the same," he complimented with a smile. She pouted and her eyes were sharp with accusation.

"You're not supposed to say something like that to a girl."

Naruto laughed and it looked painful for him so Mikoto put an end to their conversation for now because Naruto needed to go to bed and everyone was to leave him alone until morning.

And that had pretty much been Sasuke's plan – until four AM rolled around and he had to piss.

He passed Naruto's door on the way there and stopped before it on the way back.

The radio was on softly enough not to be heard unless listened to from just outside the door but it effectively drowned out any noise he might be making from the hallway. And conveniently for Sasuke, it masked any sound the door might have made when opening as well and he froze before he could open it wide enough to become noticed.

Naruto sat at the chair beneath the window, knees drawn up to his chest and fingers laced through his hair near his temples roughly. His eyes were shut tightly but Sasuke could see the tears pouring down his face relentlessly, the moonlight reflecting softly off the tracks running down his whiskered cheeks.

He was crying – _hard_. And Sasuke could tell by the measures he took to hide it, that he didn't want to be found.

So with all the finesse in his bloodline, he shut the door without even a soft click.

And he wondered silently what happened.

oOo

When morning arrived, Sasuke expected one of two things; Naruto would attempt to sleep for most of the day or he would pretend like everything was fine like he always did.

So when he found his gaze detached and alarmingly determined, he wasn't quite sure how to feel.

Naruto looked delicately angry and ready to stake revenge, eyes sharp and alive. But nothing looked as dangerous as his composed patience and Sasuke feared for whoever Naruto was poising to release his venom upon.

Sasuke was standing before the stove heating up leftovers, Itachi sat at the table in the dining room to his left, Naruto leaned against the kitchen entryway, halfway out of sight from Itachi, and Mikoto sat in the living room just past the bar where Sasuke was cooking. She was seated just before the television, her eyebrows furrowed and fingers pinching her lip in anxiety as she listened to the broadcast. She did this pretty much every morning.

"How sad," Mikoto commented through a soft sigh as she muted the television at the start of the commercials after the broadcast.

"What's that, mom?" Itachi asked from the kitchen table as he flipped through his newspaper: also routine.

"They found a boy dead on the side of the road last night."

Sasuke's eyes shifted to Naruto's and he watched as the blonde glanced up hesitantly, eyes shifting subtly toward the woman in the living area and the memory of his last conversation with Haku at that little sandwich deli resurfaced with a vengeance, "They said he was only fifteen years old and evidence found on his body indicated that he was dealing drugs – at that age?" she continued, voice filled with fearful awe and downright disbelief.

She stood from the couch and approached Naruto who stiffened against the entryway he leaned against.

"You don't know people like that, do you?" she asked softly as she implored with her eyes for him to tell her the truth.

"Of course not," Naruto assured easily. It was convincing enough that Itachi bought it and so did Mikoto because she seemed to almost visibly relax. Sasuke knew better though – Sasuke saw the dark, slick path Naruto was slipping down. Sasuke knew because Sasuke saw it.

"I worry about the places you are when you're not here with us," she continued as she placed an adorning hand across his whiskered cheek.

"Well I'm here now, so don't worry, ok?" the blonde charmed in a steadfast tone and an easy smile as he patted the hand across his cheek affectionately.

She smiled warmly at him before turning and exiting down the hall, probably to get ready for the day.

Naruto shot a subtle glance toward Itachi before leaning back against the entryway so the stove blocked the man at the kitchen table from his view. When his eyes shifted toward Sasuke's, he knew he'd find Sasuke staring right back.

"That dead boy," he began in a voice hardly even a whisper, "was Haku."

Sasuke's lips parted in shock, eyebrows rising slightly. He set the spatula in his hand down and shut off the stove.

Naruto turned and left in the direction of his room and Sasuke quickly scooped the food he'd been cooking onto a plate and handed it to Itachi who looked pleasantly surprised.

He hurried after Naruto and caught him before he could shut his door – he wasn't surprised when it was pulled open far enough for him to slip in. Even with as adamant as Naruto was about not showing it in public, they were really good friends. To Sasuke, Naruto was his best friend; and he told him so – when they were twelve.

"Haku's really dead?" he asked softly while Naruto turned to face him, features placid. Last night suddenly made sense. And his last conversation with Haku made _too_ much sense; he wished it didn't.

"Yeah. So don't be surprised if there's an announcement or something because the school probably knows by now."

"What happened, Naruto?" Sasuke asked in a serious tone. He could tell by how blocked off and distant Naruto seemed that there was far more to the story and Naruto was involved.

"You heard what your mom said. He had drugs on him. It was drug related."

He relentlessly skirted around the flat out truth and Sasuke was getting frustrated.

"You were there, weren't you?" Sasuke accused, earning a dark look from the boy across the room from him.

"No, I wasn't."

They both knew he was lying.

"Naruto what are you doing? How much shit are you going to get into before–!"

"Stop it, Sasuke!" he nearly yelled as he shut his eyes tightly, eyebrows furrowed with inner turmoil and jaw clenched tightly.

"Naruto what if it had been you?"

"It should have been!"

Sasuke stared incredulously at him for a long moment because it was a scary thought.

"I'm only alive because Haku's dead."

It was pretty much true; Kyuubi sent Haku there to die, he knew that much now. Zabuza killed a guy – an important one. Usually, Kyuubi just sent nameless, faceless street dealers on blind runs into the wrong place at the wrong time to even the dead bodies on both sides without losing anyone he actually needed.

Only this time, Zabuza made it personal and it was probably either Haku or Naruto next to the grave; it'd never be Kyuubi or Zabuza.

"_Sasuke! Time for school!_" his mother called from downstairs; there was a long silence following it and Naruto avoided Sasuke's gaze steadily.

"What does that mean, dobe?"

"Sasuke don't call me that!" Naruto yelled, the childhood frustration ringing clear in his tone – that alone was enough to put a smirk on Sasuke's face.

"We'll talk after school," Sasuke finalized, earning a look from the blonde before him that he couldn't really decipher and it was probably because Naruto didn't plan on talking at all. Haku was completely right, "You should go back to bed."

Naruto shot him a sour look as he reached for the bedroom door. He wanted to go to school, but Sasuke's mom wasn't letting him leave the house for the rest of the week and it was only Tuesday! He wasn't denying that it kind of sounded like a vacation though and a vacation was always nice.

He spent most of the morning watching a really horrible movie on the couch with Mikoto – but the quality of the movie didn't really matter because he was only on the couch to talk to her in the first place. Naruto probably talked to Mikoto more than any other adult – maybe not always about the most profound or deep topics, but Naruto always had something to say and most people didn't have the time like Mikoto and Mikoto just loved to listen to him talk.

He always left her sore from laughing so hard.

"So how are you holding up," she asked after a moment of silence where both of their eyes were glued to the television screen.

"I'm ok," he admitted honestly. They kind of pretended that Naruto's situation wasn't too bad in front of everyone else and he was pretty sure Mikoto really believed she and Fugaku were the only ones who really knew everything Naruto had been through; he didn't get the choice to tell them or not – his social worker filled them in with a good amount of detail every time he returned. There was still a lot they didn't know about, but it probably wasn't hard to guess what Naruto had been doing while they were apart.

He was also very positive that Sasuke had no idea just how much Mikoto knew.

Naruto knew it was manipulative but, as much as he hated to admit it, he wasn't really sure he trusted them not to analyze him behind his back; Sasuke was pretty close with his mother. So he just plain kept Sasuke out of the loop.

But for all he knew, they were pretending not to acknowledge each other in front of him when something suspicious popped up. He felt himself begin to close off instinctively and he tried to convince himself not to because they wouldn't do that to him, he was pretty sure… but he suddenly felt pretty insecure at the mere idea.

"Naruto-kun?" Mikoto asked, a hint of worry in her tone; she must have seen his inner turmoil on his features in some subtle manner.

"I'm ok, really Mimi," he promised in a genuine tone and a bright smile. Mikoto looked somewhat taken aback and he felt apologetic for the knee-jerk defense mechanism.

He felt a little dizzy.

"I think I need to lie down," he admitted uneasily as he rubbed his eyes to stop the room from spinning. It was pretty sudden when he realized it had been over forty-eight hours since he slept last and that was a lot harder to do without drugs.

Mikoto placed a cool hand across his forehead and another cupped his cheek and he relished the sensation because it made him shiver and even though he felt so cold, he didn't really mind.

"You've got a little fever," the woman realized with a hint of worry in her tone, "Go up to bed, I'll bring some Tylenol up in a minute."

He obeyed without argument because he wasn't sure he'd be able to stay awake much longer.

When Mikoto woke him up several minutes later he realized two things – one, he'd fallen asleep, which he hadn't actually meant to do until after taking the Tylenol, and two, he was definitely having withdrawals. He got way too friendly with Adderall and now he was paying for it.

"This must be from that horrible drug. I wish you would just give the police a name; I know you know who did this to you."

It was from a drug, yes – not one that she was referring to or one that Naruto would consider horrible; but he knew she was referring to _that_ one: the one that put him in the hospital.

Naruto just avoided her gaze as he took a sip of the water to wash down the pills left next to the glass on the bedside table. He was completely fucking up any investigation possible; he knew all the right words to say and all the wrong words not to. And he'd been giving them nothing but pristine lip service since the second the ambulance doors shut less than twelve hours ago.

Without a word he set the glass down, pulled the blankets up to his shoulders, and rolled over, facing away from the woman at his bedside.

He hated denying Mikoto anything, but this he couldn't budge on.

It didn't make him feel any less horrible for it though.

He heard her sigh in resignation before turning and exiting the room and Naruto tried to still his churning stomach; the guilt alone was making him nauseas.

oOo

All week, Sasuke's irritation with Naruto was growing steadily unbearable. Any moment he was going to receive a nasty and well-deserved backlash and Sasuke was only resisting giving it to him because he _knew_ Naruto was trying to get it; he refused to rise to the bait in spite of that _idiot_.

Plus, Naruto was starting to get angry when he refused to acknowledge the button pressing – and getting Naruto angry had always been a sacred habit of his; he enjoyed very little more than provoking Naruto.

But he also felt a bit sympathetic because he must have been bored as _hell_.

So he tried really hard to let it go when Naruto woke him up at 7:30 and told him to get his ass up, that the day was already halfway over, and that he'd have time to sleep like that when he was dead. Had he really slept that late?

When he turned toward the closest clock, he'd expected a digit no less than four numbers long and when he remembered it was Sunday, he wished it had been.

"_Naruto_," he warned in a dangerous tone, eyes sharp and angry.

"I know you're pissed off, but since you're up, just…stop being pissed off," he rationalized with a smile that looked as if he were pretty confident with his reasoning.

"Naruto not one part of that was any kind of argument," he snapped irritably as he rolled over to get out of bed, "Fucking idiot."

"Woah! Not a good morning huh?" he teased with a cocky smile, "Mimi's making breakfast so get dressed."

And then he left as if it were his job to wake Sasuke up and then tell him what to do and just go. So he decided, fuck that, he was going back to bed.

But just as he got comfortable, the door swung open again and his eyes snapped open, glaring heatedly at nothing in particular as he listened to the voice addressing him.

"Heh, good try," Naruto complimented with a smile before pushing the door open fully and leaving down the hall while Sasuke tiredly called for him to get the fuck back here!

He knew Sasuke couldn't sleep with his door open; he hated being in most rooms with the door open. Sasuke was a very private person.

He got out of bed with a few good angry swear words in Naruto's honor as he got up and shut the door with the least amount of force he could manage.

But now he _was_ up, and he probably wouldn't be able to fall back asleep after getting out of bed and already having so much heated, angry adrenalin coursing through his veins. Naruto _always_ did that to him.

That is until he realized – _oh_, it was _that_ Sunday; there was a pretty good reason to be up this early. At least he assumed this was the reason. He would probably find out by later this same morning.

The breakfast table was always a lot more interesting when Naruto was there and Naruto was _always_ there, at every breakfast, no matter what – even the three different breakfasts usually served on Saturdays and Sundays. The first was when Fugaku got up, the second when Itachi did, and the third when Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto (for the last time) got up; Naruto slept between shifts because he could grab a good hour of sleep between when Mikoto and Fugaku got up at six to when Itachi got up at seven-thirty and then anywhere from two to four hours more before Sasuke and Sakura were up after that.

Naruto wasn't on a time schedule; when food was ready, _he_ was ready damn it!

"Naruto why aren't you fat?" Sakura asked in a voice so naturally every-day that he might have thought she was talking about the weather. He laughed and choked a little on the food in his mouth and he yanked out his chopsticks to cover his mouth.

"I dunno," he answered in a muffled tone from behind his hand before swallowing.

"Gross, Naruto, don't talk with your mouth full!" Sakura chastised with a stern gaze.

"Don't ask me a question when my mouth's full!"

"That's not that gross," Sasuke commented to Naruto who glanced over at him in appreciation.

"Right?" Naruto agreed thankfully, "I don't get it."

"_Women_," the raven accused.

"_Women_."

Itachi was laughing, and even Fugaku who sat at the reclining chair near the fireplace, reading his newspaper and sipping his coffee, couldn't help but smile because what guy couldn't empathize?

"God! You're both _stupid!_" Sakura accused in frustration, "_You're_ the one who hasn't changed at all Naruto!"

"Maybe," the blonde agreed coyly, "But you'd feel nostalgic if I had."

Ah, that was true.

"Sakura-chan why are you even up this early?" Naruto inquired curiously.

"We're having a fundraiser and I kind of _have_ to be there."

"Carwash?" he asked, earning an unenthusiastic nod, "Bikinis?" Again she nodded, "Heh, so they want to headline you for the marketing campaign?"

"Not _me_ in a bikini, stupid! Not unless I want to. Ino probably will though…"

"Sakura-chan you should just do what _you_ want, instead of following Ino."

"I know, but–"

"No but's; just do it."

Naruto made self-confidence look really easy.

"So uh, what's the fundraiser for anyway?"

"School," she supplied easily as her eyes shifted back to her plate, "I better get going if I don't want to be late," she reminded herself as she poked lazily at her food, elbow resting on the table and her chin resting in her palm. She didn't look to be in as much of a rush as she should have been. She probably had very little desire to go.

Mikoto and Fugaku shared a significant look and Sasuke watched it subtly; Naruto was busy eating and didn't have the energy to waste on suspicious activity.

"Speaking of school…" Mikoto began, earning Naruto's attention while Sasuke's suspicion honed in. Mikoto seemed to have lost her wind midsentence and it was probably because she was horrible with delivering bad news. It was difficult for her.

"You're transferring to Konoha Academy," Fugaku finished mercilessly.

"What?" both boys complained, incredulous eyes shifting toward Mikoto who looked ready to fold beneath it.

"That boy that died in that drug thing earlier this week went to your school! Naruto he was in some of your classes! How can we send you to a school with such dangerous kids?" Mikoto asked softly, the fear clear in her tone.

Naruto couldn't stand the thought of Mikoto knowing the kind of person he actually was so he didn't speak because he was positive he wouldn't say the right thing; not to mention that drive to defend Haku's reputation that he had to reign in.

"Your father and I have already decided; you're going and you start tomorrow," Mikoto stated firmly while Naruto and Sasuke exchanged hesitant looks.

To Naruto, it sounded like a foreign world and he _knew_ he wouldn't fit in. Private school? He'd never even _met_ anyone besides Sakura that went to a private school.

"Look, you boys are just stuck on your routine. I know changing schools is hard but this is a _good_ change. Naruto, you deserve so much more academic attention. I _know_ you're smart. Besides, Sakura-chan already goes there and she says it's fun! She's quite popular too, you know, Naruto? She's become vice president of her class since you saw her last," Mikoto bragged while Naruto shot her an affectionate look.

"I had no idea I was sharing a meal with the vice president of _Konoha Academy_. Should I stand?" he asked in a facetious tone that had Sakura laughing as she waved her hand at him in a gesture to tell him to knock it off.

Mikoto smiled in appreciation at Naruto's willingness to at least _act_ optimistic about it; who knew how he really felt. Naruto was so naturally deceiving and so good at it that it was impossible to see and easy to forget about.

And Sasuke? Sasuke was done complaining after a scornfully stern look from his father.

"Oh! You know what I just realized? Everyone's up and I only had to cook twice!"

"Aw, Sakura-chan, look what your fundraiser caused," Naruto teased in a halfhearted tone.

"Sasuke sleeps late too Naruto! And so do you! Aren't you heading back to bed soon?" Sakura defended in a chastising tone.

"Nope, not today."

"How do you even wake up for every breakfast anyway?"

It was a very good question. Sasuke had always wondered as well; Naruto was never less than perfect on his timing. Even if someone snoozed an alarm or just plain didn't set one at all, he was always at the table just as it was ready to be served.

"The smell wakes me up," he explained with a victorious sort of smile; it was pretty obvious he found this as a huge advantage.

And with that he got up, set his empty plate in the half-full dishwasher and left for the hallway to the staircase.

"Come on Sasuke, we have less than an hour," he reminded before disappearing around the corner while Sasuke shot the empty space where he once was an incredulous look.

"Hour until what?" he asked as he followed suit, amused and puzzled eyes watching him go. They didn't bother with asking him what Naruto meant because Sasuke himself didn't know; often times he didn't know what he was getting into when Naruto was involved.

But better than anyone else, Sasuke could predict some of what Naruto expected out of him with his poor communication, so that forty-five minutes later, when Naruto was at the door, slipping his shoes on, dressed in probably the nicest clothes he owned and Mikoto wondered what he was doing, Sasuke knew from the hallway where he was standing that he'd dressed appropriately as well.

So today _was_ that Sunday.

"Where are you going?"

Naruto glanced up from the floor as he slipped his second shoe on to find Mikoto's inquiring gaze upon him.

"To that kid's funeral – the one from my school. Like you said, he was in some of my classes and I think it's appropriate to pay some final respect to him. I'm new to this."

No he wasn't. He'd attended his own father's funeral at eight. But the more indifferent he sounded, the more ok he sounded and the more ok he sounded the less worried Sasuke's parents were.

Sasuke shook his head from where he'd been listening at the hallway entrance and pushed himself off the wall he leaned against to drift into the entryway before the front door. Naruto's eyes shifted to him and he couldn't deny how good Sasuke looked in clothes as nice as the ones he was wearing; he looked downright professional.

"We'll be back a little later," Sasuke finalized as he opened the front door and pushed Naruto out before following and shutting the door behind them.

Mikoto let them go – not because she didn't care where they were, but because she trusted them enough to choose how to spend their Sunday morning. Sasuke was sixteen now! And Naruto would be sixteen soon too; they weren't her babies anymore. They were quickly becoming young men and she was growing proud of who she could see.

oOo

Sasuke was a bit nervous, he could admit that much. This would be his first funeral and he wasn't quite sure what to expect. Would Naruto be ok? This was one of his closest friends being buried today and he wasn't sure he could ever begin to empathize what that might feel like – not unless Naruto died someday but the thought alone horrified him so he didn't want to imagine.

But all service, Naruto seemed fine, his gaze fixed primarily on either the picture on the altar of the huge church reserved for the service or a man sitting at the back opposite corner of the church. Sasuke wondered about the latter.

Naruto didn't know why he did it, but Zabuza was giving Haku one hell of a funeral with a pricey gravesite in the small graveyard behind the church; Zabuza had reserved two spots incidentally and Naruto vaguely wondered if the other was for the man himself. His last conversation with Haku wouldn't leave his mind and he was beginning to form a wild idea in his head that Haku's weird attraction wasn't one sided.

Zabuza didn't speak. He just sat at the back of the church and watched because he wasn't the type to publicly show his adoration for Haku. No one really knew how he got such an expensive funeral but the church was packed because very few people at their school disliked him; actually Sasuke didn't really know _anyone_ who disliked him – he was far too submissive to get angry with.

But when Haku's friends – _Naruto's_ friends – started talking, it got a lot harder to fight down that urge to mourn and Sasuke was close to losing it when Naruto took the podium.

Zabuza had asked him to speak and he wouldn't deny that the request startled him a little; he'd of never expected him to say 'Haku would have wanted that'.

"Haku was always the first person to accept a major inconvenience if it could help someone else – it was the same when he died."

The silence plowed over every single person in the tall church and every eye watched Naruto with trepidation; there was speculation that Naruto was there when Haku died – this would probably rip all their hearts out. His downcast eyes – his expression alone was bringing closer friends to tears already. His eyes shifted toward that man again and he looked a very subtle amount of accusing and somehow apologetic.

And then he glanced toward the picture at the center of the altar next and they knew this time he wasn't talking to them at all.

"They broke the mold when they made you Haku. You're the kind of person it takes lifetimes to find – it felt like it was that long before we met: and you're already gone."

He sounded slightly incredulous and his words seemed to kind of make it hit for a very significant amount of people filling the pews. Sasuke realized quickly that he was one of the very few with dry eyes; not that he wasn't sad for Naruto – he just wouldn't show it in public.

"I would do anything to get you back," he admitted in a desperate tone. Sasuke felt his chest ache and he didn't know it was possible for it to hurt this much to see Naruto in that much emotional turmoil, "I'm gonna miss you so much."

A simultaneous jerk of tears coaxed over a good amount of people in the pews facing the altar when his voice lost a good amount of strength from how hard it was to say goodbye.

He composed himself quickly before his eyes could line with tears and he returned to his seat next to Sasuke with no regrets because he knew Haku could hear him loud and clear in whatever place his soul was resting.

The burial was different. Only a very few remained for it and Sasuke wasn't one of them; he told Naruto he'd wait here in the church because he felt as if that were for his more intimate friends – his friends like Naruto and Gaara and somehow, that man from the back of the church that Naruto couldn't stop making significant eye contact with.

Sasuke hadn't really kept track of the time before Naruto returned through the eastern set of double-doors: the ones that lead to the graveyard. He approached Sasuke slowly but deliberately as he stopped before him, eyes downcast; Sasuke could tell it must have been much harder to keep it together there – there was vague evidence to prove it but he didn't say anything because it's not like he had to ask Naruto if he was ok. No, Naruto wasn't ok; one of his best friends just died.

And it was ok to be sad.

"Let's go home."

oOo


	6. Chapter 6: Ethics

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I forgot to actually mention what EBT was at the end of the last chapter. People in my region probably know what EBT is, but I'm pretty sure there are people from other countries reading too, and I'm so sorry. I'm a space case, I apologize a million times! EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer and it's basically food stamps, but it works like a prepaid debit card. I'm pretty sure it's used everywhere in the United States, but I'm too lazy to research. All I can say is that EBT is definitely used in California.

And here comes a small passage to tell a little more about Kushina :)

**Chapter Six: Ethics**

The sky glowed softly as the sun began to set over the western horizon, sky a mix of orange and crimson pink: a color that put the world beneath it in a hue that complimented the long, red hair cascading down thin shoulders on a young woman of twenty-two.

She was walking down the half-empty streets toward the twenty-four hour diner on the corner of the block of the same apartment complex where she lived. That diner where she met Minato, a handsome young man she'd found sitting at the bar when she arrived for her shift one evening.

Kushina was a high school dropout who waitressed at a very dingy and slightly filthy diner that got a little too much business for how poor the service usually was.

But thank god she'd found this job four years ago. She was beginning to feel desperate after her mother kicked her out a quarter of the way through her senior year of high school; she wasn't quite sure what she'd done wrong but that was pretty much the same thing she struggled to endure her entire life so she wasn't all that sidelined by it.

She'd been screwed, yes. But not surprised.

At the point in time she was at when she found this job, she was ready to fold against the relentless offer placed indefinitely at the back of her mind. There was a dark lifestyle left available to her if no other option was left.

Looking back on it, she wasn't sure that she would have actually done it; but it's not like she wasn't already particularly exposed to the lifestyle already. She'd grown up seeing her mother live it. It was odd to remember what that was like trying to interpret it through a child's eyes. She couldn't really remember the mindscape at all.

But she didn't need to dwell on it because she had found a job and she didn't end up having to resort to facing that dark path. She thanked whatever savior tempted fate for her because it had saved her life.

She wished she could have at least finished high school though. She tried – very hard – and for a few weeks it went somewhat well. But her grades quickly slipped when her attendance plummeted because she had only just finished an eight hour shift three hours before her first class was supposed to begin and she just wasn't sure she had it in her to stay awake that long after several weeks without any type of consistent sleeping pattern.

Her homework, or lack thereof, goes without saying.

She couldn't miss work because if she missed work she wouldn't make money and if she didn't make money she couldn't pay rent. The compromise came down to wants versus needs and she _needed_ to work.

Her exhaustion caught up to her quickly and she knew she'd never be able to keep up with an entire semester left.

Someone had told her to talk to social services because she should still be considered eligible for foster care if she hadn't graduated high school yet. But she wasn't sure how many of those things went and she didn't want to get her mother in trouble by mistake. Sure, her mother seemed to hate her and she constantly screwed Kushina over, but she was her mother, the person that brought her into existence, and something within her just couldn't do it, even with the countless hours she spent loathing her for what her life was turning into. A high school dropout wasn't exactly what she'd been aiming for.

But then she met Minato and suddenly, the world seemed a little more ironic because it was suddenly possible to realize that, maybe she wouldn't be rich or live in a house with a backyard and have a dog, but she had something much better than both those things. It was easy to love waking up with the sun when her favorite thing to do was _anything_ in the world with Minato.

She and Minato had been love at first sight – if a thing like that existed. They were moved in together within a year and had Naruto thirteen months after that. Eight years slipped away from her before she knew it and Minato's murder left her in a hole so deep, she couldn't see the sky; by that point, she had quit working and Minato had been their sole, main source of income. They hadn't technically been married because they'd just never considered needing government approval so she knew she wouldn't qualify under his life insurance if he even had any. She doubted he did.

And then her mind returned to that offer Kyuubi kept pushing on her when she was out of a job and homeless and just barely eighteen-years-old and it was incredible how quickly _he_ started popping up in every place she was now that Minato was gone.

Things were different now. She had a child that needed food and clothes and school supplies and she had no job, no high school diploma, and the diner was under new management so she was unable to get her old job back with a little nostalgic motivation.

She couldn't get a job anywhere.

She'd waited as long as she could. She spent Naruto's school hours job hunting, every day of every week right up to the day before their notice dead-lined their eviction, but finding a job was nearly impossible for the people _with_ a high school education; things were much more bleak for those without one. The economy was only continuing to plummet and she doubted it would turn around before tomorrow.

That was when she turned to Kyuubi because she couldn't live with the idea of her child living in a shelter when a bed was never _guaranteed_, especially not when she had an option – no matter how unpleasant it was.

She'd begged to just do it and pleaded for him not to make her take the drugs because they made her feel so sick, but he hadn't listened and it was mind-boggling how quickly she had grown addicted.

When she was on the drugs, all she told herself was that she'd stop the very next time – that she could absolutely do it; she could absolutely do it until she wasn't on the drugs anymore, and everything around her was suffocating her with anxiety. It was in that way that put those _insane_ notions in her mind: like how she could just throw herself through her bedroom window and end it all right now without the help of a needle and a fix.

But standing up was a joke; the anxiety that just thinking about it gave her was more overwhelming than usual, and it wasn't going away so all she could do was twist and turn as she clenched her fingers tightly against the skin on her thin, clammy arms as she held herself tightly – anything to make the sharp, horrible bile at the pit of her stomach stop choking her with unease.

The disquiet was devastating and there was no direct cause other than her withdrawals; she told herself to calm down and stop feeling so anxious over nothing – there was nothing to worry about!

But she couldn't decide which was worse; being heroin sick or letting Kyuubi use her – because drugs weren't free and now she used a lot more than when Kyuubi forced her to. Sure, Naruto helped pay most of the bills, but that didn't come close to offsetting the cost of heroin which she was irreversibly addicted to – at least it felt that way.

She could stop, but not right now because right now was a particularly bad time and she always had tomorrow to prove it to her baby that everything would turn around one day and to trust her.

Her nausea plowed over her and apprehension choked her from every tendon, blood vessel, and muscle and it was incredible how much more painful it was to be alive without a fix with both those things combined together along with the pain of her withdrawals.

She wasn't sure she would be ready tomorrow either.

oOo

Naruto wasn't really sure when it set in – he was pretty sure yesterday at the burial was when it really hit. Haku was dead and it was entirely Kyuubi's fault. He was left with this hallow anger that he couldn't fight off no matter what he did. His thoughts swirled around the second it happened and all the thoughts he'd been keeping pent up were screaming at each other and he didn't know if this counted as sane anymore.

And all he could think about was X-J-3-7-R-2-5.

"You ready to talk about it?"

Sasuke watched as Naruto jumped slightly in his chair under the window, the forehead previously resting against the glass of the window yanked away as he turned to glare toward Sasuke.

Sasuke was pressing him – _finally_. He spent a week letting Naruto come to him and Naruto hadn't come anywhere near him about the subject – Haku was right. And he could tell something was on his mind.

"Fuck off, Sasuke."

Sasuke watched him for a short moment and he egged himself on to push Naruto harder – to inquire more firmly because that's what Haku told him to do.

But this was never his forte and it was a lot harder than he anticipated, especially with the way Naruto was glaring at him now.

Blue eyes shifted away toward the window once again and his features looked nowhere near as pensive as they had been when he first let himself into Naruto's room. He looked a little distant and Sasuke didn't know how to reach him.

Maybe he should retry when it was a better time.

"Are you almost ready?" Sasuke asked, shifting the subject in an almost defeated tone. Naruto's features turned uneasy as he stretched in his chair with an irritated sigh.

"I guess – I dunno about this."

"It'll be fine," Sasuke reassured easily as he made his way over to the chair to coax him out of it.

But something seemed to snatch the blonde's attention from the corner of his eye and he stuck himself onto the window as he tried to look closer.

"You're neighbor has a bat house!" he realized with a victorious sort of ring to his tone. Sasuke was puzzled by it.

"Yeah, you don't hear them at night? They're loud as _fuck_," Sasuke added, voice filled with irritation.

"Heavy sleeper," the blonde rationalized in a sarcastic tone suggesting that there were far louder things to fall asleep to than a bat.

"Well, congratulations. Come on dobe, we're gonna be late and although that lifestyle fits you, I hate to be late. So get your ass to breakfast."

"Yeah, ok, be right there."

But his tone was distracted and Sasuke didn't really believe he'd be there as soon as he promised. So he wasn't surprised when he was finishing up his breakfast and Naruto still wasn't there.

"Naruto get your _ass_ to the car!" Sasuke nearly yelled as he entered the bedroom of his blonde companion for the second time that morning.

He shouldn't have been surprised at the scene before him. He really shouldn't have.

"Hey Sasuke," Naruto breathed through the strain of pulling himself up through the two story window, and Sasuke watched him incredulously before his features shifted to unimpressed and he raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the blonde before him.

"Idiot."

"What?"

"Now you have to change your shirt."

Naruto glanced down with furrowed eyebrows and tried to wipe the dirt staining his white uniform shirt but it didn't quite work the same way as it did with t-shirts and it didn't just disappear or blend in if he swiped at it enough like dirt usually did; it might have helped if the shirt wasn't white, but he doubted it.

"This might be off topic," Sasuke began in a sarcastic tone, "but – care to explain why were you scaling the house?"

Naruto watched him with knowing eyes as he unbuttoned the dirty shirt and tossed it at the hamper before grabbing another from the pile where Mikoto left it yesterday.

"I dunno what house you're talking about," he assured in an airy tone as he breezed past Sasuke to the door. Sasuke didn't move yet – he was still watching the window and wondering what the fuck Naruto was doing already breaking in and out of the house, "Come on Sasuke we can't spend the whole morning watching you stare out the window! We're gonna be late!"

His fingers turned to fists and he tried to reign in his anger.

"_Dobe!_"

oOo

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stood, in that order, at the curb outside the entrance to the school and Naruto stared up at it uneasily. He felt like he was in a very foreign place – everything was so _nice_. He was kind of afraid of fucking it all up…and a little excited. _Heh_.

"Hey, _freak_," a feminine voice greeted from the left. Naruto glanced around Sakura at the person probably addressing them and Sasuke leaned back around Naruto to see too, "Oh _shit_, Sakura, who the fuck did you bring with you today?" she asked, pushing past the girl toward the boys who retracted slightly in an attempt to regain a little personal space. Naruto didn't expect such vial words to come from such a pretty face but there was a point in time people told _him_ that too; he didn't really understand it until now.

"My god," she breathed as she stared at Sasuke before her eyes shifted to Naruto and she smirked in a devilish way while wrapping a hand around the back of his neck, "You look _bad_. My dad would hate it if I dated you," she commented with a smirk while Naruto stepped back slightly, causing her hand to slip off.

He didn't look bad, did he? He thought he'd never looked _nicer_ – he'd never owned clothes as nice as these. Besides, it was a uniform. People couldn't look bad in a uniform, right?

But he glanced over at Sasuke and realized there might be a lot more personality available to interpretation just by the way people wore a shirt.

"No I don't," Naruto argued in a subtly offended tone. He couldn't fit in even if he painted himself the same way everyone else was. Ino was staring at his scars and he could tell by the subtle shift in her features that she contemplated vocalizing her curiosity toward them.

Maybe he was just doing this wrong. Sasuke was wearing a black blazer which Naruto wasn't really willing to give a chance yet – it was still hanging in his closet – and the tie was possibly a joke. Neither were mandatory and he wouldn't be going near either if he didn't have to. Sasuke wore the blazer, the white shirt beneath it buttoned to the second button from the top, collar lining up crisply with the tall collar of the blazer. The blazer's collar rose to the same height as the shirt collar and it didn't fold over. It had a very subtle oriental root in its design.

Sasuke looked perfectly professional.

Naruto left two buttons undone – it felt claustrophobic buttoned any further up. His sleeves were rolled halfway up his forearms, between his wrists and his elbows, and his shirt wasn't close to as stiff as anyone else's. Or maybe his posture was just horrible in comparison and it was more noticeable in these types of clothes; he really had no idea.

"Yes you do," Ino assured as she hooked a finger into the slit of his shirt between the first and second buttons and tugged slightly.

But a hand was over hers and she was pushed away gently before she could get any further.

"Excuse this pig, she's a notorious whore. Can I help you with something other than with these two?" Sakura asked as she jerked the girl to face her completely, forcing her gaze away from Naruto who looked excruciatingly uncomfortable. He had no idea Ino was complimenting him and Sakura felt her heart swell with pity for how frustrated he seemed; like he felt he really couldn't adapt here.

"No," Ino replied easily as she turned to stare once again, "That's all I care about."

"You're gross," Sakura deemed as she pushed her away gently toward the school and away from her foster-brothers, "I sometimes wonder if it's safe to even touch you."

"That's good. Tell that to the blonde one. Seriously Sakura, where the _hell_ did you get them and _why_ are you with them? He's _bad_ Sakura, you can _tell_. I'll bet he's been arrested."

It was probably his scars that made Ino think she could tell what type of lifestyle Naruto led.

"They're not toys so stop talking about them like they are. Both are off limits; I will bitch slap you out of school property if you hook up with either of them. I'm not kidding," Sakura warned heatedly, earning a look of pure injustice, "And don't call Naruto _bad_. You don't know what he's been through."

Ino looked somewhat repentant and Sakura knew she was at least getting through, even if only a little.

Sasuke gazed skeptically at the girls for a long moment as they continued to get further away toward the school before gazing over at Naruto who was fidgeting with the sleeve of his shirt, eyes steadfast on nothing in particular. He seemed deep in thought.

"Hey," Sasuke interrupted, earning Naruto's attention hesitantly, "She's just a stupid bitch."

Naruto laughed but bit it back with his hand over his mouth as he glanced over to make sure she was out of earshot. There was an animosity behind Sasuke's words that didn't sound very fake and Naruto wondered silently about it. But the words were so far from his character that he couldn't help but laugh and he had a good idea Sasuke had planned it that way – Sasuke was trying to cheer him up.

"Sasuke, that's harsh," he breathed back while Sasuke smirked for the reaction he'd received. It was always fun to paint surprise over Naruto's features – it didn't happen often; few things seemed to astound him.

"Hopefully they're not all like that," the raven rationalized as he gazed over at Naruto who glanced back, eyes uneasy.

"They can't be, right?"

"I promise, no one is quite like Ino," Sakura interrupted, having caught the end of the conversation as she returned to them, Ino sent away into the maze of school hallways, "Come on, you guys have most of the same classes as me for the rest of the semester."

Naruto had a difficult time describing the difference in the air between this school and his last. Here, it was less threatening but far more judgmental; Naruto could tell by the way people kept looking at them, Sasuke especially, like he was a piece of meat.

Naruto was an idiot; at least in Sasuke's perspective. Was he blind? He was a bit oblivious to the interested stares he was getting from a good amount of girls but Sasuke wasn't and he was glaring away lewd eyes before Naruto could catch them. Fuck that, it pissed him off and he didn't give a fuck why. It just did. And it was probably somehow Naruto's fault; he was going to punch him later for it…or something. He wasn't sure how to describe the type of frustration he felt.

A lot of people knew Sakura. Every time she exchanged goodbyes with someone, another person greeted her down the hall and she would exchange brief words before the cycle repeated. But knowing Sakura's forward personality, it wasn't surprising that she was so involved in her school's community; it had Naruto's head spinning because people _weren't_ stopping him every few moments for drugs and he sort of loved it.

Their first three classes were relatively easy, and Naruto found the atmosphere stressful in a different way than his old school; everyone was worried about such different things than what he was used to. Freshmen here were worried about college. Most seniors at his old school weren't even worried about that.

But the brochure _did_ brag about their sparkling ratio on graduates into major colleges around the country – not to mention that squeaky little one-hundred percent graduation rate and zero percent drop-out rate. This school just plain didn't _have_ drop-outs and the thought was so foreign to him.

But surprisingly, he was kind of fitting in sort of well. People were being generally pretty welcoming to him; he was pretty sure knowing Sakura helped.

By the time lunch rolled around, he was getting somewhat familiar with Sakura's group of friends. There was, Kiba, probably his favorite and most relatable new friend, Shikamaru, a lazy guy who seemed a little lost in the clouds, Ino, that freaking girl from earlier this morning, Hinata, a blind girl who was not unattractive but seemed extremely uncomfortable with social interaction, Lee, an extremely forward and impulsive person who Naruto couldn't really bring himself to dislike with his genuine optimism, Tenten, a pretty Chinese exchange student, Chouji, a gluttonous and overweight boy who seemed genuine enough, and Shino, a quiet, dark guy who Naruto wasn't really sure about yet.

The first fifty minutes of lunch had been nice enough, especially since all the new people he'd met, shared a lunch block with them, and they were getting along pretty well. Even Sasuke, who was usually very anti-social, wouldn't deny that there was a good amount of chemistry in Sakura's group of friends – that is, until a boy named Neji who usually sat with them, decided to join the group after finishing the make-up test that invaded the beginning of his free period.

That was when the question of why Naruto and Sasuke were there and why they were with Sakura seemed to come up and the air around them became a bit uncomfortable; most of them assumed Sakura was showing them around because of her involvement with student government.

"They're my foster brothers," she explained harshly to Neji, her tone seeming to ask if he was pleased with himself. Naruto got the vague impression that Sakura didn't get along well with him.

Naruto avoided inquiring eyes and Sasuke seemed to do the same but with a more refined and irritated edge compared to Naruto's uncomfortable one. Sakura had probably talked about them before; Naruto wondered what she might have said.

"Oh yeah, you're in foster care, huh Forehead?"

"Yes, I am, Ino-pig, and I'm still better than you!"

"So then who's the one with the rich parents?" Kiba asked crudely to which Sasuke rolled his eyes with an irritated scoff.

"That would be Sasuke," Neji answered for him before his gaze fell upon Naruto and his eyes were cold. Naruto stared back vaguely unimpressed. He wasn't intimidated easily – especially not by some rich little pussy like Neji, "Which makes _you_ the other foster kid. I don't know why Sasuke's parents are wasting the money on tuition for someone like _you_," the pale eyed brunette stated in a bitter tone that grew repulsed upon the last word.

"Oh really?" Naruto began in an amused tone, "And just what, exactly, is the kind of person I am?" he asked, voice angry as he glared heatedly at the person across the table from him.

"The kind with a record at fourteen who won't go anywhere in life; fate put you in a place and you can't run from it by coming here."

Wow.

He wasn't expecting that.

And all he could think was, _low blow_.

Every eye was suddenly upon him as he gazed back at Neji in disbelief; he wasn't even sure _Sasuke_ knew about that and it would have been nice to keep it that way. He was excruciatingly aware of the many heavy gazes upon him and he suddenly felt vastly inferior to the people here; eight unique judgments were swirling around in eight naïve minds about him and it was so unfair because there was nothing he could do to take that back. It's not like he was really going to sit here and explain why his double-felony on drug charges at fourteen seriously wasn't his fault. He didn't even know these people. There was just no way.

As for Sakura and Sasuke – they probably just looked betrayed; they deserved to. Naruto lied to them. Well he didn't _lie_, really. He just didn't tell the truth.

His eyes shifted to his textbook on the table and he avoided every pair of eyes that was trying to catch his.

"How the hell do you even know about that?" he asked softly, unsure he really wanted to know.

"My uncle is a highly recognized detective; this sort of information isn't hard for me to find."

Sakura turned and her palm slapped against the side of his face so quickly that the slap that resounded after almost seemed to come from something else entirely.

"You're an asshole," the pink haired female stated easily when she received an incredulous look from him.

Naruto closed his eyes as he released the air in his lungs through his teeth and he told himself to just accept it as it came because a girl had _really_ just defended him against another dude and he was pretty sure it couldn't really get any worse for his bruised ego.

"I'm not being an asshole since it's true."

"No, you're being an ignorant _fascist_," Naruto began as he flipped his book shut, eyes finally lifting to meet Neji's for a furious moment, "But that initially correlates into asshole anyway."

Neji glared at Naruto for the well placed insult as the blonde stood while grabbing his book before leaving for the hallway, eyebrows furrowed and downcast gaze somewhat distant; Sasuke could tell he was frustrated and he was probably asking himself why he couldn't catch a chance to fit in anywhere and he felt guilty for it, but he felt a little betrayed that Naruto hadn't told him about whatever happened to land him with a record that young.

"Why would you do that?" Sakura asked in a furious voice as she slammed her palms on the surface of the table they sat at, "You have no idea what he's been through!"

"Yeah, Neji, I dunno if I agree with what you just did. That was pretty harsh," Kiba interjected, eyebrows furrowed and eyes on the brick wall that blocked off the view of the hallway Naruto disappeared down.

Hinata tapped her fingers together, feeling conflicted as a million things ran through her mind. Hinata was blind, and her hearing was sharp; she overheard a lot of things she wasn't supposed to, and she overheard _a lot_ about Uzumaki Naruto. Her father was a detective and a very good one; he worked with undercover police officers investigating drug trafficking – she heard a lot of things about fifteen-year-old Uzumaki Naruto and she felt so bad for him.

"Y-you–Neji-nii-san…"

She didn't finish but just the disheartened tone of her voice spoke of her disapproval and her expressing _that_, alone, was a feat.

Sasuke ignored whatever was said next as he stood and grabbed his bag, exiting the same way Naruto did.

He made his way toward Naruto's locker and wasn't surprised to find him standing there before it, staring aimlessly through it in the empty hallway of lockers.

Naruto glanced at him sidelong before shifting his gaze away again as the raven approached.

"Would have been nice to hear it from you," Sasuke stated in a halfhearted tone. Naruto turned to glare at him heatedly because Sasuke knew he was being out of line; he hadn't meant to be and he sort of wished he could take it back by the betrayal on Naruto's features alone.

"Yeah, what was I thinking? It should have been 'Hey Sasuke, how long's it been since I've been in foster care? Almost two years? Oh by the way, I got a felony for dealing crack like a month after my mom took me back last time. Might be the reason I dropped off the face of the earth for a little while there'."

Sasuke felt a little speechless and a great deal guilty – when he put things into perspective, he realized he wasn't angry; he felt a little stung that Naruto didn't trust him and he had every intention of confronting him about it, but Naruto was fresh into foster care and no matter what, that kind of transition was never easy. He felt guiltier than he felt stung and he knew Naruto deserved a break more than anyone.

But he'd done the exact opposite of give Naruto a break and he wished he could backtrack merely for Naruto's sake.

Naruto just gazed at him forlornly and in a somehow apologetic way and Sasuke felt excruciatingly guilty because it was very true that there was a time and place for everything and Naruto hadn't exactly _lied_ to him about it. He was such an asshole and he knew it; but as if he'd ever admit it.

"It's not like I planned on never telling you. I just never got a chance ok?"

His voice was extremely bitter and the tone of it bit at Sasuke's nerves and he _felt_ the injustice for Naruto.

"I'm _sorry_ I–"

"Seriously, don't apologize," Naruto interrupted as he grabbed his Ethics book before turning toward Sasuke as he shut his locker door gently, his fingers twisting the lock until the arrow was pointing down toward the zero, "Your family has done so much for me – I could never repay any of you. So please; don't apologize to someone like me. It makes me feel like shit."

He didn't know why he was so brutally honest with it, but it was out before he could pull it back and Sasuke seemed vaguely empathetic so he didn't regret it as badly as he thought he might.

"Naruto, really–"

He was cut off by the bell and Naruto smiled bitterly at him when the ringing ceased to echo in the empty hall. And when he spoke it sounded genuine.

"Thanks for always having my back Sasuke."

Passive aggressive asshole.

Sasuke just looked away guiltily because he was kind of a coward when it came to Naruto and he knew there was a sarcastic edge to his tone that he one hundred percent deserved.

Maybe it was good they had a class apart – Naruto was really pissed with him and he needed to think of an acceptable approach to delivering his apology: his version anyway. Naruto would probably understand before he'd get a word out. He usually did.

oOo

Naruto was alone, for the first time in a while. Well, he was technically in a room full of people; but he didn't know _one_ of them so he didn't need to worry about appearances – he felt his features slip with his attention as he drifted toward his thoughts because what Neji did was so unfair. It really had sucked more than he let on and now he was feeling paranoid; how many people knew by now? Half the school? No one? Neji could have been telling people since he found out Naruto was coming to this school for all he knew.

He was pretty sure that the two girls giggling wildly with each other behind a notebook one row over kept looking at him and it was really distracting trying to convince himself to ignore it and _not_ think about if they were wondering what was on his record – or maybe they knew; who the fuck knows? Neji probably did and Neji obviously had no problem spreading around his business to anyone who did or didn't care.

And then there was Sasuke. Sasuke was more difficult to describe or analyze than any other person he knew. Their relationship was unconventional, that was for sure. They fought more than they didn't and they were constantly arguing; very rarely did they agree on anything – but Sasuke was the person he somehow talked to more than anyone else in the world and he couldn't explain how that made him feel.

Maybe he didn't talk to Sasuke about the most profound things, but they were always communicating and Sasuke just kind of caught onto things on his own; it was actually convenient when Naruto really thought about it – details weren't really his forte and he usually didn't respond to inquiries. He gave what he wished and nothing more. Sasuke knew that.

But sometimes he really was an out of line asshole, and right now, Naruto didn't have the energy to act ok with it. Then again, the more he replayed the interaction in his head, the more he started to think that maybe he had overreacted, maybe just a little. Sasuke always made him overact – it was like a fucking sport to him.

Still, if he could explain him and Sasuke as anything, it would be magnetic; often times it was when he was opening up his phone with the intention of texting Sasuke that his phone would vibrate and he would find a message from the brunette in his inbox. They were somehow on a different wavelength from the rest of the world.

And then there was X-J-3-7-R-2-5.

_He was so distracted!_

Giggling interrupted his thoughts and he felt his irritation soar. He placed his pen down as he looked up toward his teacher, a slight plead in his features when his eyes met the back of his teacher's book.

They did a lot of independent learning in this class apparently. He wished it could at least be _quiet!_ The general hum of students asking each other questions didn't bother him. The girls a row over acting obnoxious did.

The girls hushed themselves desperately as they laughed with each other with renewed vigor and Naruto lost his patience. He wished they'd shut up and he was prepared to turn and tell them just that.

But just as he turned to snap at them, his attention was redirected as his silver-haired teacher stood abruptly, book firmly placed before his face as he walked toward Naruto, pretending to point out mistakes and horrible ideas along the way to unsuspecting students.

"Page three, huh?" the tall man noticed in a voice hardly above a whisper and eyes steadfast on his book. Naruto stared up at him skeptically.

"Yeah, well, I actually didn't take this class at all at my old school. So I have a lot of catching up to do."

He said it with a sarcastic edge to his voice because the man had yet to give him one single direction of what to do.

"Hm, innovative."

Naruto was pretty sure he heard a hint of some sarcasm coming from him as well and the girls rolled on in their giggling fit. Was he in trouble or something?

"Will you maintain _some_ sort of control over your class?" he recommended in a harsh whisper and with a frustrated edge.

He kneeled down quickly and Naruto felt as if his space was a bit invaded. Kakashi moved the book in his hands to block the girls from view and Naruto's eyes darted toward the exposed page, an eyebrow quirking at the first word that drew his eye and Kakashi's hand was covering the page in less than seconds.

"Just what kind of book are you reading?" Naruto asked as he looked to the man next and he took in his features, or what he could see. The man wore a medical mask and his bangs hid most of his left eye; it was weird and somehow illusive but Naruto wouldn't deny that it fit his image.

"Don't you know anything about reading a girl?" the man whispered so softly, Naruto strained to hear it.

"What?" he asked in disbelief, unsure if he was hearing that right.

"Read my lips, Naruto, Jesus Christ. I swear I read somewhere that you were a potential genius or something and you can't even figure out how to gossip without screaming."

"_I can't read your lips you useless old man!_" he hissed back as he leaned closer to emphasize his disbelief. Wait what? He read what?

"I'm not that old," the man emphasized first, "And they're doing that to try and get your attention. They think you're sexy," he continued to explain explained as he ignored the incrimination itself all together, head tilting slightly toward the distracting girls.

"That's probably not what they think," Naruto assured as he shifted his eyes away in irritation as he remembered Neji's stunt, "What did you read about me?"

What the hell was there, a file on him available to whoever the hell wanted it? He'd like to know where his personal business was being recorded in writing.

"Your school records," the man supplied in an almost perplexed tone, "I _am_ a teacher. Honestly, I'm not sure you're the genius your record says you are."

Ah, right – school records.

Naruto felt pretty dumb but he reminded himself that his perception was slightly warped by the paucity of the fact that someone _previously_ knew very personal information about him before he'd even met said someone; he was a little gun shy and he over analyzed in response – that was neither irrational nor preventable so he wasn't worried about it.

"I never said I was smart," Naruto defended quickly in determination to set that thing straight, "I have horrible grades, the lowest in the whole school–"

"And yet you're in calculus as a sophomore. Only nineteen out of three hundred and thirty-seven sophomores are in a Calculus or higher division class. And that has to mean something."

"That doesn't mean anything. It's a class, just like every other one, and I have a D," Naruto argued easily.

"That's very black and white of you," Kakashi complimented sarcastically as he shot him an unimpressed look, "There's a gray area and I think you don't want people to know about it. You want me to underestimate you because that would give you an advantage."

"Advantage over _what?_ You're my _teacher!_"

"Those are good tactics, to analyze me that quickly. If you'd of remained silent that would only confirm my accusation that you have a dark, well-kept secret. I'm intrigued because either I can read you perfectly or not at all and I can't be one hundred percent on either," the man whispered quickly, earning an odd look from the blonde before him.

"You're out of your mind."

"And you're clueless," he countered as he nodded slightly toward the direction where, behind the book, were two girls still giggling madly, "They're flirting and you really don't see it and _that_ I _am_ positive about; this of course means you are naïve in at least one aspect and I can't help but share with you why I'm going to do what I'm about to do – it's because I love to do it. So I'm sorry, but this is at your expense."

He stood abruptly and didn't give Naruto the opportunity to respond; it wouldn't have mattered anyway – Naruto had nothing to say. His jaw was halfway slack and he was pretty sure Kakashi was insane, or a genius: or maybe both.

Naruto's eyes followed the man as he returned to the front of the room, book returned to before his face as he prepared to address the class.

"Listen up, class," he began, earning the immediate attention of each teen in the room. Naruto glanced around in marvel at it. None of his old teachers could ever do that, "It's a special time of year – you should all be ready to wallow in despair just thinking of what you'll have to endure; I wouldn't eat breakfast on the days you have my class because the mental stress alone will make you throw up anyway. That's all _before_ the anxiety kicks in."

Naruto's eyelids fell halfway as he glared unenthusiastically at the man at the front of the room. Yeah right, he didn't buy a word of it. What could he possibly have them do that could cause that much mental stress? He was slightly oblivious to the nervous break out in the air of the room – then again, Naruto was rather clueless to reading a mood in general so it wasn't all that spectacularly revealing to his persona.

"Let's create an alternate universe, shall we? Five countries – Earth, Water, Wind, Lighting, and Fire – dictate leadership. You will be split into groups of five, and each group will represent a country. A war has come to a halt in wake of a peace treaty; your job is to negotiate, as leaders of your country, for what you feel your country deserves. You'll have maps of land you can't lose, marked by color; all the orange is up for grabs. But there's a catch," he warned with a wicked sort of glint to his eye, as he finished passing out a packet containing all the promised information, "One country hides a terrible secret of deception; the peace treaty is not a mutual decision. Only the team planning massacre will know and you are required to keep it to yourselves. If I suspect any of the team members leaked, everyone will fail. So don't go snooping either. As a team, your overall grade depends on how much land you can convince the other countries into believing you deserve. There is enough land to go around to give four teams an A."

There was a general wake of displeasure and several hands shot up but Kakashi ignored it all.

"One team cannot get higher than a D if four teams take an A. So I suggest you start getting good at persuasion if you're the shark in the water because it's entirely up to you, as country leaders, to decide who gets what and ultimately, who fails or not. If you happen to guess right, and give the deceiving country less land, you'll all pass. But please try not to fail an innocent group, ok? That's just…_mean_."

Naruto was completely taken aback by the lack of revolt and he wondered if they were really allowed to do this – it seemed completely unethical; the exact opposite of what they were _supposed_ to be learning in an ethics class.

But everyone looked suspicious and incriminating rather than unjustified and Naruto had to remind himself that this was a very competitive school with extremely high standards for kids willing to do _anything_ to get the best score – to be number one. When his old transcript transferred over, the guidance counselor had almost choked on her coffee and he kind of laughed at it. Mikoto had very subtly and very gently warned him of how difficult it was for students to get into this school – they were a special case really – so he wasn't all that taken aback when he was told he'd have the lowest grades in the school no matter how good he did the rest of the semester. There was only so much you could really do with grades as low as his.

Her exact words were, 'Well if you only got perfect scores for the rest of the semester, you could probably pull off a couple B's. Maybe an A or two. But I mean, even really smart kids don't get perfect scores in everything all the time.'

_Fuck that_, was that a challenge? And since when were guidance counselors aloud to backhandedly call kids stupid?

"So of course you realize, that poor, innocent group couldn't get any higher than a C in this class even with perfect marks outside of this project. Are any of you surprised to hear that there's a catch?"

No one made a sound and Kakashi didn't even look up from his book to say what he did next.

"The losing country can pick one person to fail and when I say fail, I mean F; and the rest of the group can take an A – is anyone familiar with the term 'scapegoat'? However this person must also agree to it so…use whatever means necessary, I suppose."

His tone was unreadable and no one was really sure if their teacher had really just encouraged them to dip into the ink of blackmail or not.

Kakashi began naming off groups and the class began to move into small groups across the room and immediately the air was suspicious because people were desperate to get the best at whatever stake. Naruto remained skeptical because he still had no idea what the hell his teacher had been talking about before he began speaking about the project and he was pretty sure the man was completely insane.

That is, until his name popped up.

"And, Naruto, you'll be working with Amaru, Shion, Kiba, and Shikamaru."

The girls from before slipped into a fit of something inhuman and Naruto stared unsurely at them for a moment before turning his gaze to his silver haired teacher.

"Wha–?"

"Naruto-kun, huh?" the redhead cut off as she slipped into the empty desk next to him and scooted it closer, eyes fixed on him, bright and wide as the smile on her face. Her blonde companion followed suit with his other side until he was boxed in.

"Just Naruto is fine," he assured uneasily before his eyes darted pleadingly toward his teacher. He was a little furious because their entire conversation suddenly made sense and he definitely felt naïve and spectacularly out of place because everything here was so much different to interpret. But Kakashi had been right; they were flirting with him.

"So you transferred here from the inner city?" the blonde asked as she leaned a little too close. Naruto backed up but the redhead was right on his other side and he willed himself not to push them away.

"Yeah," he answered distractedly as Amaru giggled in reply. He felt _really_ uncomfortable; Sasuke wasn't here to bail him out – Sasuke was usually the asshole _for_ him. Naruto had a hard time being mean to someone with somewhat positive intentions. These girls weren't exactly _insulting_ him.

"That's so _bad_," Shion mused with a wry smile. Naruto felt a little irritated. That was the second time he'd heard that.

"Not – not really, that seems to be a common misconception," he assured uneasily, "Could you guys give me some space?"

Both desks were pulled away almost simultaneously and Naruto glanced up as Kiba and Shikamaru threw desks between him and each of the girls on either side of him before taking a seat and effectively cutting off whatever they thought was going on. Both were a little too taken aback to complain about it.

"We just want to say that we don't really care and it's not really our business so – fuck Neji and let's forget about it."

Naruto stared at Kiba for a long moment, lips parting in incredulity; not all things were bad – and he smiled for the optimism lying in the opportunity placed before him.

"Yeah, fuck Neji," he agreed with a friendly smile – the addicting one that Sasuke would kill to see all the time; he might go so far to say it was genuine.

And that was all they needed to say; _fuck Neji_ – something just about everyone could agree with.

Kakashi was shooting them a rather frustrated glare and it wasn't long before he called Kiba and Shikamaru to the front of the room.

"Ah, that's no good," he commented as they stood and turned to approach his desk, "You'd better just grab all your things," he continued to advise as he glanced at the clock to notice a good twenty minutes of class left, "We have a lot to talk about."

Amaru and Shion jumped right back into place and Naruto had a good feeling that was Kakashi's intention entirely and neither Kiba nor Shikamaru seemed to be receiving necessary instruction.

The end of the period didn't come fast enough and he, very literally, ran into the only person who could bail him out of the bind he was in, the moment he exited the classroom.

"Dobe!" Sasuke chastised before his eyes landed on the girls following behind him, chatting without waver – at the same time; about different things. The noise was overwhelming.

"Would you two shut the fuck up?" Sasuke snapped finally, earning two taken aback looks from the now silent girls. He grabbed Naruto by the arm near his elbow and yanked him away, putting himself between Naruto and the two girls. They got a good view of his back and Naruto avoided their wandering eyes and not much else.

"He's so possessive," Amaru whispered instantly as she turned toward her blonde haired companion, eyes bright with a new horizon of thought.

"Amaru! What are you suggesting?" Shion nearly yelled as she pushed the girl down the hall, voices hushed and excited as they discussed something in rapid voices as they disappeared down the corridor, eyes glancing back every now and then before they were out of sight.

"_Jesus_," Naruto whispered before he finally turned to gaze at Sasuke who looked ready to say something, "Oh please, don't do it," Naruto almost pleaded as he stopped Sasuke before he could start, "You're an asshole, I'm over sensitive, and we're both over it. Can we please talk about what just happened – I was just grouped with those two people for the rest of the semester."

Sasuke looked irritated because that would probably involve meeting outside of school and somehow the idea of Naruto hanging around with girls that fucking annoying tasted sour on his tongue. It was a lot like how jealousy tasted. It was obvious they were flirting with him.

"That's unfortunate," Sasuke admitted blatantly to which Naruto nodded in agreement, gaze distant and forlorn.

"Yea," he breathed before the warning bell rang, reminding them to head toward their next class, "Do you know where we're going for our next class? I was ten minutes late to my last class; I got lost."

"Idiot," Sasuke accused as he turned and motioned for the blonde to follow, which he did, without complaint but with a little accusation in his gaze for the insult.

"I still got there before my teacher!" he added in an afterthought – as if the coincidence excused the crime; guilty didn't always mean convicted after all and Sasuke shot Naruto an unimpressed glare to remind him of it.

"Hopefully you can't manage to get lost during this passing period," Sasuke prayed sarcastically as he reached for the handle to the door neighboring his previous classroom.

"Teme," Naruto laughed as he punched him swiftly at the back of his left shoulder. Sasuke just smiled along because he'd instigated it so he let it go.

He let Naruto get away with _everything_.

Everyone did.

oOo

If Naruto thought nothing could take him by surprise here, he'd of vastly misjudged the potential. He wouldn't have expected in a million years that the cop from the other night would be his calculus teacher.

The second they entered the classroom, he froze, and for a moment and shot the man a subtle look before shaking it off quickly; he didn't want anyone to see the pleading he knew would have been in his eyes. God please don't say anything _please_!

"Ah, you two must be uh, Sasuke?" the man began as he sifted through papers laid out across his desk, "And Naruto?" he finished as he drew out the first word for several moments while looking for the name.

"Yes," Sasuke affirmed monotonously while Naruto shot the man a relieved and thankful look.

"Great! Welcome! Have a seat wherever. No seat assignments," he explained while both nodded and took the two first open seats next to each other.

Naruto pulled out his book while the class slowly entered the room in a steady trickle up until the bell rang to signal the end of the passing period. No one entered the room after and it was a little incredible how rarely kids were late here. He used to be late more than he wasn't; it was pretty clear how unacceptable that would be now.

"So where about did you leave off at your old school?" Asuma asked as Naruto flipped backward through the pages of his textbook.

"Um…" he hummed, unsure of where a familiar page might pop up. This book was completely different.

"Section 2.3," Sasuke answered for him, book closed and untouched in his backpack still. Naruto glared at him for showing off. He would know too if he actually went to school.

"Not too bad," Asuma shrugged as he contemplated how to gently respond, "We're, uh, on 4.7, but I'm sure you'll catch up quickly. Stay after and we'll talk about it."

Both nodded in agreement and Naruto laughed a little ironically because they were nowhere near close but Asuma smiled back appreciatively before beginning his lecture. Naruto was surprised with how easy it was to follow along; his mind was so clear and he wasn't even taking Adderall – it really was amazing.

Somewhere around forty-five minutes into class, the classroom door opened, but Naruto ignored it because he was used to people coming and going as they pleased during class and he was busy paying attention to the lecture and scribbling down his notes.

But Asuma stopped and everyone around him was standing so he glanced up in time to see a woman, with the hugest tits he'd ever seen, enter the classroom. Her eyes found his instantly and she seemed to wonder with her expression why he wasn't joining his classmates in standing for her arrival. Naruto stared back, unimpressed, because it would take a lot more than that to intimidate him and he was really just considering this a challenge now; why should he stand for another person? No one person was better than anyone else – this demographic was beginning to feel like a hierarchy. People didn't just _get_ respect.

He leaned back in his chair as his eyes shifted away in determination.

"Hey! You brat!"

Ok, that caught his attention. His eyes snapped back to hers angrily because her tone had been enough to make anyone feel uneasy and he couldn't help but feel somehow grateful because he kind of responded well to very strong leadership.

"_What?_" he snapped back in a challenging tone. She stalked over angrily to him and her fingers grabbed his ear so quickly that he had very little time to prepare as she yanked him out of his seat. His hands rose to grab hers in an attempt to both ease the pain and pull himself free and Sasuke noticed he was smiling as he stood and he really wondered what was so funny.

Naruto felt the hand beneath his and he knew _instantly_. All day he shook hands with tons of different people; it's what he had to do to exchange drugs – hands could give a lot away – and the hand gripping his ear told him a very interesting fact about the woman before him who appeared so young. He couldn't help but smile.

"When the principal enters your classroom, you stand," she informed in a dangerous tone while she released her hold on his ear.

"Ok," he agreed easily, smile only widening, "Ba-baa." (1)

There was a very short moment of silence after the class gave a general gasp or laugh in disbelief.

"In my office! _Now!_" she screamed while Naruto smiled wider and shrugged slightly when she pointed for him to take the lead.

"I have no idea where your office is; it's my first day."

A very good portion of the class was laughing very quietly and sounding as if it was trying to silence itself while the remaining silent students seemed too afraid to join in or show any sort of amusement in their solid expressions.

And then there was Sasuke who looked completely unsurprised.

She took off first and he followed without hesitation and almost every person in the room wondered how he could have so little fear of the world.

She led them down the halls with a sharp _this way_ and a little glare, each time she turned – as if he, at just a few days away from sixteen, had no idea how to follow a person without getting lost.

It irritated him but he didn't want to let it show; she _intended_ for it to irritate him.

"Have a seat," she offered in a deceivingly placid tone when they finally reached her small office. He obeyed hesitantly, "So, remind me why we're here," she started off in a playfully frustrated tone that earned her an irritated posture as the teen leaned back in his chair and shot the ceiling an unamused look.

"Because I'm a mouthy little shit," he answered for her before shifting his eyes back down to hers, eyes waiting to see her reaction – mind reeling with the desire to analyze it.

"That's right," she agreed easily, "You're a mouthy little piece of shit."

"_Woah!_" the blonde laughed with a smile at her re-wording, "That sounds way more offensive!"

"Well that's what teachers are supposed to do – correct your grammar. You're welcome. I'm already making you a better person."

"But you're not a teacher. You're just the principal," Naruto reminded quickly, earning an irritated glare for it.

"Just the principal that signs your teachers' paychecks."

"Yeah but they do way more work than you."

"Do you have any idea how much work I actually have to do? Real work, not the kind I can blow off for a superior to take care of like a teacher can," the woman defended quickly as she leaned a little closer, eyes narrowed in inquiry, "_I_ have to deal with all the little jerks like _you!_ Not to mention admissions. Admissions are a _bitch!_ And I have to deal with all the insane parents who want to know why their kid got an A minus and how they could possibly bring it up. You have no idea how much work I have to do."

"Ok," he agreed with a successful smile – the kind that gave her the hint that he suspected all those things already.

"But, ya know, life's not so bad with a six digit salary," she bragged in an attempt to ebb at a sore subject. She knew his story – or at least a little anyway; all that she was required to know and it was enough to grab a general assumption.

"Yeah life's probably _great_ with a rack like _that_."

There was a long moment of silence where Tsunade stared very blankly at him; very little was going to surprise her at this point.

"Are you stupid?"

_I blame on my A.D.D. baby_

Naruto tried to stop laughing at the timing as his phone went off and he reached for it to read his text but it was difficult to stem the laughter with the way Tsunade was staring at him like he had two heads.

"No phones at school! Didn't you read that handbook you initialed?"

"Not one word," he mumbled as he read through the words on the screen with a good ninety percent of his attention.

"Give it to me," Tsunade demanded as she held her hand out to reinforce with gesture and Naruto shot her an incredulous look.

"Fuck no!" he nearly yelled before pulling the phone away to his left, then his right as the woman grabbed for it and when she refused to relent, it ended up shoved under the hem of his pants as he shot the woman a victorious look, "You'd be breaking a few laws getting to it now. Hah! Not that you'd get in any actual trouble since you're a woman and all."

The woman sat back in her chair heavily, eyes sharp and features furious as she glared at the child across the desk from her – thank _god_ the desk was between them; she didn't want to kill a kid on his first day here. It wouldn't look good for her.

"Detention, one week. Starting today. Go."

"Uh, I was supposed to stay after and talk to my teacher about how to catch up. They're twice as far as my class was."

The woman smiled in irony as she glared away toward the corner of the room. Of course – he'd probably have an excuse for _everything_; and it was academic so she couldn't let him blow it off.

"Fine! Tomorrow! Now _go!_"

Naruto didn't hesitate to comply but reached into his pocket first before he stood and seemed to be digging for something as he reached for the office door.

"Ah!" he rejoiced as he pulled the lining of his pocket out, covering the phone still inside his pants, "Wouldn't wanna forget this," he reminded with a cocky smile as he shook the phone slightly as if to mock her on his way out.

But maybe it hadn't been such a good idea; the vexation earned him the nameplate from her desk and he slammed the door shut behind him quickly to avoid it. A thud, accompanied by the splintering of wood, reverberated toward him through the door and he was left a little stunned.

That could have cracked his fucking head open!

"_Next one's going right between your eyes!_" the woman yelled from inside the room and Naruto really didn't think it was an empty threat at all. It might not be a bad idea to watch his step; private schools were doing their own thing – could the teachers hit him here? He was _pretty_ sure they couldn't, but his principal didn't seem all that worried about fatally injuring him even on accident.

He hurried back to his math class and made it only minutes before the bell was set to ring and Asuma was still lecturing.

"–to just ignore that for now–_woah!_"

Asuma stopped mid-lecture to stare at him and Naruto froze for a moment before he could take his seat to shoot him an inquiring gaze for the odd look the man was giving him.

"You're back and you look…_ok_," he explained, the inquiry and incredulity clear in his tone.

"Yeah, somehow," Naruto supplied with an vixen-smile as he reinstated himself in his desk next to Sasuke before Asuma continued on to wrap up his lecture.

"Naruto-kun what happened? What'd she say?" a curious girl to his left asked softly. He glanced over at her owlishly because he wasn't really sure what she meant only to find several eyes watching him in anticipation.

"Ya know, the usual principal stuff," he supplied unsurely. Why were they asking?

"Did you get in trouble?" another voice questioned softly, the eyes belonging to it still watching Asuma warily.

"Not too bad…"

The bell rang and Naruto was a little thankful for it; he and Sasuke remained at their seats for a moment while the class filed out of the room and Naruto's features shifted from thoughtfully puzzled to amused as the man watched them approach his desk.

"Do you ever take a break?" Naruto joked, a jibe at his choice in careers – the plurality of the word to be specific.

"Gotta keep moving otherwise the bad guys will getcha," the man reminded as he leaned back in his chair, arms crossing behind his head as he looked toward the ceiling. It was a recognizably coded-message to subtly put it out there that he remembered Naruto from that night; and it was a safe little reminder that he was ok keeping that completely to himself.

"If the bad guys want you, they'll get you, whether you're moving or not."

Asuma laughed ironically as he dropped his arms to the armrest of his chair, gaze shifting back toward Naruto's.

"I like to keep busy," Asuma revised with a half-shrug and a crooked smile.

"He was one of the cops from the other night," Naruto explained for Sasuke before pointing toward Sasuke with a lazy thumb for Asuma, "Foster brother," but then his eyes narrowed and he gazed at Asuma suspiciously, "There's a baby on the way, isn't there?" he guessed with a wicked smile.

"What? Why would–? No!" the man denied hastily, caught off guard by the question and earning a knowing look from the blonde before him, "And I don't particularly like the term 'cop'."

"I'm on to you," Naruto warned with a look of suspicion as he ignored the correction; Naruto was all about rude nicknames – what did he care? "I'm on to you _both!_" he suddenly added when it seemed to click that it was Kurenai, his social worker, who would be carrying said baby, if it existed.

"Well let's focus on catching up in calculus first," the man evaded uneasily – a pretty clear sign that Naruto was right, "Are you both free to meet after school for a few weeks?"

"Ah, well starting next week," Naruto mumbled sheepishly while he earned two inquisitive looks for why, "I might have got detention for a couple days?"

Asuma laughed and Sasuke looked unimpressed.

"So you didn't go quite unscathed then," the man realized aloud, an amused smile plastered on his lips, "What about free blocks? Have any free blocks together?"

"Other than lunch?"

Asuma seemed to wince and Naruto wondered why.

"Ouch, no free blocks at all?"

"Well I'm really behind on credits," Naruto explained with an uncomfortable sidelong glance at Sasuke, as if he hated to admit that much in front of him.

"I have E free," Sasuke interrupted with an impatient ring to his tone.

"Ok, we'll meet at E then, Naruto, I'll figure something out during detention for you."

Asuma seemed to take the news of Naruto's detention pretty well – almost too well; as if it were merely a new puzzle for him to figure out and Naruto wouldn't deny it surprised him a bit. He wasn't sure what to expect.

But even more surprisingly was how well as Sasuke's parents took it.

"That's – not as bad as we expected," Mikoto laughed honestly, earning an agreeable nod in agreement from her husband.

"I mean, a week of detention isn't _that_ bad. Honestly, there are a lot worse things that could have happened, if you step back and look at the big picture I mean."

"Unbelievable," Sasuke breathed with an ironic smile. He actually laughed at how authoritative his father had suddenly become, but then his father looked toward him, the authoritarian resurfacing across his features with enthusiasm.

"Sasuke if you _ever_ got detention–!"

But Sasuke cut him off quickly with an irritated wave of his hand.

"As if I would ever get detention," he defended in an aggravated tone. His parents explained it millions of times; different people should have different expectations, and he admitted, he agreed with that ideology. He and Naruto were two completely different people and Sasuke honestly thrived off his father's impossible expectations. He lived for those sparse moments where a flash of pride would filter over his intimidating features and no other words needed to be exchanged, as long as they both acknowledged that Sasuke had seen it.

It worked especially well since neither of them were anywhere near useful at all when it came to using their words.

Naruto though…he _loved_ how easy Sasuke's parents were on him. He lived a lifestyle of a certain type of freedom and they didn't have the heart to take it away from him; he was an outspoken and fearless child with a soul as strong and unwavering as an old tree with deep roots – Mikoto often told him he had a timeworn soul. A person like Naruto wasn't born every generation; they feared the repercussion if they tried to hold him back, especially when his intentions in life were always so selfless.

For Naruto it was all smiles – Sasuke's family was only a place of fond memories because he refused to let it be otherwise.

Even when it felt painful to keep it up – it was still on his mind: those seven characters that ended Haku's life. He was so _obsessed_ and he didn't know how to find those numbers again other than in his memory.

X-J-3-7-R-2-5

He could see it written clear as day on Gaara's wall and hadn't bothered with telling him it was ok to wash off; it was nice to have a security net. Anyone else would probably be horrified with it for the sole reason that it was written in a dead friend's blood, but Gaara was fazed by few things. So he wasn't too worried about it remaining there for some time.

He couldn't wait for tomorrow. He was exhausted.

And tomorrow was another day.

oOo

1. Ba-baa – old woman (derogatory)

I don't like to use too much Japanese in my stories, but there are some things (most specifically names) that just lose impact in English. I'm sorry if this bothers any of you. If I could write the whole thing in Japanese, I totally would. Unfortunately, I have no affinity for foreign languages so English it is ;)

And I just want to say thank you so much to those of you who take the time to review! I love to hear feedback and you've all been so kind so thank you, thank you, thank you! It warms my heart, really! I love you all so much! :D


	7. Chapter 7: Baby, It's Fact

**Chapter Seven: Baby, It's Fact**

The clock ticked, Sasuke tapped his pencil against his notebook distractedly as he stared unseeingly forward, ignoring the lecture presented to him, and Naruto shot him an amused glance for it before returning his attention to his notebook – or…_attempting_ to anyway.

Sasuke really was incredible. Sure, Naruto was fucking good with numbers, but he _did_ need to pay attention during class if he wanted to do well – Sasuke just always already knew everything. It was fucking ridiculous. Naruto had to work his ass off in literature and history to do well; he could meet sciences halfway.

But Sasuke was just fucking perfect at everything without even trying. Sometimes Naruto hated him for it.

"Naruto!" Iruka called out suddenly, earning a small flinch out of the blonde, "What years do the Mongols attempt to invade Japan?"

"Uh, 1274 and um…shit."

"Naruto you can't say shit," Iruka reminded as he dropped his lecture outline notes on his desk and shot him a chastising look.

"Well, _you're_ not exactly leading by example."

"Don't say shit," the man finalized in an unamused tone, "Sasuke–"

"1274 and 1281: they failed because of the poor weather _both_ times," the pause in his voice was a cry of how unimpressed he was, "Pathetic."

Naruto shot Sasuke a semi-furious gaze and Sasuke glanced back smugly. Naruto didn't know that; he didn't remember seeing that fun fact anywhere in _his_ book – how the hell did Sasuke know _everything?_

Iruka moved on and Naruto shot Sasuke something along the lines of '_You're_ pathetic,' under his furious breath and Sasuke just smiled because Naruto was so easy to rile up and so fun to tease when he was.

"Naruto, pay attention," Sakura chastised from behind him as she tapped the back of his head with the butt of her pen – she didn't yell at _Sasuke_ and Sasuke was just as guilty of not paying attention.

"_Ok, ok_."

"Just one 'ok' is fine," she reminded just before the bell rang for the end of the class period.

Their next class was a lot easier for Naruto; however not even that would stop his teacher from publicly humiliating him by explaining why he needed to be grouped with Sakura and Sasuke to even out his poor grades with their rather spectacular ones. It also didn't help when he was handed a little pink slip half an hour into class telling him he forgot his notebook in his previous class and could pick it up after school at the office. His teacher didn't look surprised and he wanted to defend himself that it was only his second day and politely request for him to _get the fuck off his back_.

Whatever – at least he was guaranteed to sit with them every Biology period and that was something to be thankful for: fuck yeah, optimism.

Needless to say, Naruto spent the entire hour and five minutes of class annoying the hell out of both of them for kicks, so that by lunch block, they were ready to help him trip down a set of stairs because he looked a little too pleased with himself.

Fortunately for Naruto, Ino was distracting enough to divert his attention when they reached their lunch table and he was staring at her oddly from where he sat between Sasuke and Sakura when she addressed him because he was positive she was talking nonsense.

"We just want you to know that we do not agree with Neji's bad choice yesterday so we told him he couldn't sit with us today," Ino explained as she pointed toward somewhere behind him where a table sat, hosting a single inhabitant. Neji looked up at the feel of several gazes upon him and he flipped them off easily before returning his attention to his notebook.

Naruto returned his gaze forward and shot her a skeptical look.

"That's pretty stupid," he informed with an incredulous smile, "Sounds like something little kids do."

Ino looked offended and ready to defend herself.

"Well what would you have done?" she challenged, earning an odd look from the blonde across the table.

"I wouldn't have done anything. Everyone's entitled to an opinion – no matter how stupid it is," he explained; there was a bitter splash to his words and it was obvious Naruto truly believed Neji's ideology was _stupid_, "But if he keeps fucking with me, I'm gonna kick his ass. Plus I can fight my own battles!" he defended quickly as he stood confrontationally, one hand pointing toward Neji in initiation, "Hear that Neji? I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Kick his ass," Sasuke encouraged evenly as the pen in his hand paused mid-word and it wasn't difficult to tell that he'd harbored a similar distaste for the pale eyed teen.

"Heh, Sasuke," the blonde teased with a smirk as he turned and smacked him across the upper arm with the back of his hand, "I thought resorting to physical measures was _primal and barbaric_."

It wasn't hard to tell he was preaching Sasuke his own ideology – probably because they had very different ideals and probably argued constantly about them; Naruto wouldn't miss this opportunity to prove a point.

Sasuke sat still for a moment as his eyes stared thoughtfully at the butt of his pen.

"Perhaps in most situations," he revised while his pen continued on as if it hadn't stopped at all.

Neji stood from his table abruptly and it caught the corner of Naruto's vision who watched as the long haired teen wandered over to the closest table of girls in their year and sat down to tell them something that was out of his earshot.

But it wasn't like Naruto had to guess what it was. His forehead dropped to his textbook and he covered his head with his arms when Neji pointed toward him and he felt the world closing in around him – he wished he could disappear; why did he always do this to himself?

And then Sasuke addressed the table of girls – not so loud that he was yelling but loud enough that he was heard and his voice was _intimidating_ because he knew what they were talking about.

"Yeah so – don't fuck with me!"

Naruto could vaguely hear Neji loudly reassuring '_No! Not him! The blonde one!_' but he didn't even care because he couldn't have stopped himself from laughing if he wanted to because he could only imagine how badly Sasuke wanted to be disregarded by society and left to himself which could have been a good reason for why he'd attempt to ruin his reputation to spare Naruto's and his fingers curled into his condemning blonde locks as he laughed into the arms his face was still buried in.

He didn't care who hated him for a thing he couldn't control; not as long as he had Sasuke – not as long as he had _one_ important person on his side. Plus everyone at this table seemed indifferent and none of them looked incriminating toward anything in his past.

Having Sasuke back was overwhelming.

And he was loving every second of it.

oOo

Naruto wasn't surprised at all at the end of the day – three classes later – that every single person suddenly knew who he was and that he had a speculated 'record'. Whether they knew what was on that record or not, he still didn't know; but he recognized those incriminating eyes anywhere. He used to get them religiously at his old school. Only at his old school, half the people there bought drugs from him too, so there was a lot less of it.

It didn't exactly help that he was on his way to detention on his second day of school either. He was pretty sure he heard an ironic laugh from somewhere behind him when he threw open the detention hall door.

Was he surprised to find the room completely empty? He wasn't entirely sure since he had a lot of mixed feelings about this place at this point in time. All he knew was that he wasn't in the wrong place – he just wasn't – not when the fucking name on the small plate next to the door outside the room was _Detention Hall_.

He threw his bag under the first empty desk next to him and sat down in an air of frustration. He should give his _teacher_ detention for being late.

Half an hour later the door swung open and his Ethics teacher froze in the doorway as his single eye landed on Naruto and he looked like he'd just realized he slipped up.

"There's someone in detention," he realized aloud before composing himself quickly and striding over to the desk at the front of the room, "I'm _just_ as shocked that someone has detention as I'm _amazed_ to find it's you," he finished sarcastically.

Naruto leaned back in his chair and scowled unfavorably as Kakashi fell into his chair, feet kicking up on the desk as he grabbed a binder off the wooden surface.

"Ah," he realized as he flipped open the thin record book on his lap, "If I would have just looked in the file they gave me, I would have seen that one whole student was, in fact, signed up for an entire week of detention."

Naruto's arms crossed over his chest as he tilted his head to the side slightly and eyes narrowed subtly as if to pretend like he was interested.

"You can study if you ask nicely."

"Can I please," the sarcasm was overwhelming, "please," and only getting thicker with monotony, "_please_–" and somehow a little poisonous by the way he paused in ennui, "pretend to study."

"Unfortunately, no one likes a mouthy, unpleasant child – so no, you can't. No talking during detention; that's the rule and those who don't follow the rules are scum."

"Well then I must be scum," Naruto shot back easily; he didn't seem too perturbed by it. He was pretty much used to similar titles.

"So, any suspicions yet on who's guilty?" the man asked as he shifted subjects swiftly.

"I thought you didn't want us to know."

"I _don't_ want you to know. I want you to _suspect_. I want you to _suspect_, _investigate_, _contemplate_ – I want you to toss and turn just thinking about what you're planning on doing. Who would you fail? Who would you say deserved to?"

Naruto just gazed back uncertainly and didn't respond when he broke his gaze to stare at some downcast corner of the room instead. He wasn't all that sure.

"Perfect," Kakashi complimented as he kicked back further in his chair while simultaneously flipping open his dirty book.

And that was how they spent the next fourteen minutes; with Naruto seething in a moral dilemma and Kakashi enjoying every second of it from the front of the room.

The door was thrown open and Naruto glanced up where Sasuke stood in the doorway, one eyebrow raised in impatience. Naruto felt his stomach clench with _something_ and he wasn't sure why but he felt addicted because it was so foreign and somehow _way_ beyond pleasant.

"Detention is over," he explained in a snappish tone to remind Naruto to hurry up.

He grabbed his backpack and threw it over one shoulder while he shot Kakashi an impish yet unsure glare.

"I _am_ authorized to give detention," the man reminded without glancing up. Naruto stared at him in contemplation for a moment as he still faced his desk and the words on his tongue never left his mouth because of how distracted he felt when he returned his gaze back toward Sasuke and he felt his pulse speed up because he felt so _rejuvenated_ and it was almost like Kakashi wasn't there at all because he forgot what he was going to say.

So he said nothing at all as he made it to the exit in three steps from his back row desk.

"You don't have to bitch. It's still 3:45 now; I wasn't more than _seconds_ late," Naruto advised as they headed for the parking lot before freezing as he realized something, "Ah shit, Sasuke I gotta go get my book from the office."

Sasuke sighed as he slowed to a stop and turned with an impatient glare.

"Go get it then. And hurry up."

Naruto shot him a sheepish smile before turning and heading for the office with not one single _hint_ of haste in his posture.

When he arrived he handed over his pink slip and the woman at the front desk requested a moment as she went to go grab it.

He could vaguely hear a voice from somewhere around Tsunade's office and Naruto wondered about it; it sounded like a parent and said parent sounded angry.

"I just don't know what administrations were thinking! Did any of you read _anything_ about him at all?"

Naruto pulled his eyes away from Tsunade's door when it opened and he returned his attention to his notebook as it was handed to him; yelling lady – not his problem.

"Look, I know your upset but don't you think you're–" Tsunade attempted to reason before the woman interrupted her.

"_You!_"

Naruto turned toward the incriminating tone on pure muscle memory but he wasn't at all surprised to find it hadn't been in vein when hateful eyes met his.

"_You_ stay away from my daughter, you _delinquent!_"

Naruto looked taken aback but he recovered with a good, disgusted glare in return.

"I wouldn't go _near_ those ignorant genes!"

"Tsunade-sama!" the woman complained as she threw her hand toward Naruto's general direction in emphasis – as if to prove a point she was making before Naruto had arrived.

"Naruto! Just – go to my office!"

"I'm not in trouble!" he yelled back defiantly, "That's _totally_ unethical!"

"_Now!_"

He glared incredulously at her before taking off for her office with a frustrated noise and he slammed the door behind him loud enough to remind her that he _wasn't in trouble!_

"Do you see what I mean?"

"Look, _you_ instigated that," Tsunade defended sternly, earning an astonished glare in return, "You're incriminating a child upon a rumor you probably overheard from your daughter. This school's staff has all the knowledge it requires and takes an overwhelming amount of consideration with each of its students in a very in depth application method; to doubt our admissions process is offensive and if you find it inadequate then find a new school. I've got _hundreds_ on a waitlist. I don't need parents telling me how to do my job."

She didn't stick around to listen to anything more before turning for her office and shutting the door behind her firmly after entering it.

Naruto stood at the corner furthest from the door looking apprehensive and frustrated and badly stung and Tsunade felt a rush of guilt for how harsh that had been.

"I can't get away from it anywhere."

She watched him with eyebrows furrowed in benevolence and somehow empathy. His eyes grew a fraction suspicious at it, and he turned incriminatingly guarded.

"I had a record when I was younger too."

The confession earned her an inquisitive look while a lot of his hostility dropped and she knew she struck a chord, "It gets better – it just takes a while," she encouraged sympathetically; plus, he was still young – there was still the possibility he could get it sealed or expunged at eighteen.

But the words didn't really seem to reach him and his vexation returned with full force as he laced his fingers through his blonde hair and yanked at his mental dilemma.

"I'm so _frustrated!_"

His voice broke a little from the volume and the amount of emotion he was trying to bottle.

Nothing Tsunade had to say next had any importance to him and he made that clear by the way he slipped past her out of the room without another word and leaving the front office with a glare full of respite toward the implicating woman still near the entrance.

His reaction seemed to have a desired effect. The woman seemed pleased with how upset he was and he vaguely caught her voice as he left, filled with approval at how well they were 'keeping him in line'.

Sasuke looked on guard instantly when he caught sight of Naruto returning to him.

"What's wrong?" he asked instantly when Naruto continued on right past him in the direction of Sasuke's car, "Hey!"

"Nothing, ok? Just let it go."

Sasuke caught up with furrowed eyebrows but he didn't inquire further about it because it wasn't his style; Naruto would tell him if he needed to know.

But Naruto seemed set on keeping to himself when the rest of the drive home commenced without one more word in acknowledgement from either of them – Naruto because he was too deeply lost in thought and Sasuke because he could respect a busy mind and didn't mind the silence.

It lasted through to the next day and didn't get any better when Neji was allowed to rejoin their lunch table. He seemed keen on picking at any wound he could find on Naruto and by the end of the day, when he was heading for detention, he felt frustrated and stung and a little pessimistic about ever getting a fair chance at a reputation anywhere.

Kakashi was there when he arrived and he wasn't sure how he felt about it; maybe he'd prefer the first thirty minutes alone like how he spent it yesterday.

But before he could really think about it, his calculus teacher came storming through the door with a book in hand and eyes directly on Kakashi from the moment he entered the room. This must be what he figured out for tutoring – _brilliant_.

"Kakashi!" Asuma greeted loudly as he entered the room in a wave of pleading; it wasn't difficult to see he was about to ask a favor, "I have a request – will you hear me out?"

Kakashi seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding agreeably.

"Allow me to tutor Naruto while he's in detention; he has no free blocks and his old school is twice as behind as we are and I have a feeling he's going to be in detention more than he isn't–"

"_Hey!_"

"–and I really think he deserves a fighting chance."

Naruto was scowling unfavorably at his argument and Kakashi seemed pleased by the entire thing – particularly by how entertaining the information was displayed for him.

"I'll allow it," he assured with a playful ring to his tone. It wasn't hard to see he found this all overwhelmingly amusing.

"I'm surprised you gave in so easily," Asuma admitted as he passed the desk at the front of the room on his way to Naruto.

"He's actually one of my favorite students," the man assured with a grin to his tone, eyes never straying from the print before his eyes.

"You shouldn't say something creepy when you're reading a book like that," Naruto reminded in a wary tone, "Especially to a student."

Kakashi just laughed to himself but his eyes refused to drift from his novel and Asuma sat in the desk directly in front of Naruto's and set down a book on the desk before him.

"So let's just start from wherever you left off," he began as he flipped open to the section Sasuke had mentioned. Naruto was a little taken aback by it all; the attention Asuma was giving him academically was startling compared to what he was used to.

"Familiar at all?"

Naruto glanced down at it incredulously before looking up unsurely.

"Yeah. That is."

Asuma dove headfirst into a descriptive lesson and Naruto followed along easily – all of it made sense; especially when someone took the time to explain it so fluently to him.

Asuma was a little taken aback when Naruto solved the sample problem he asked without even reaching for his calculator and he shot Kakashi a subtle glance who finally seemed keen on breaking his eyes away from his book to watch him do it.

His single visible eye shifted up to meet Asuma's gaze and they shared a quiet look; Naruto didn't seem to think it was that out of the ordinary to accomplish the requested task without help from a calculator and they were both somewhat curious about just how much potential he truly had because this type of problem should be impossible for him to solve in such a short amount of time on his own.

But neither of them really wanted to say anything – they wanted to see how smart he really was; they didn't want to give him any reason to hold back so both of them stayed silent until blue eyes glanced up as he set his pencil down and he looked inquiringly toward Asuma.

"Is that right?"

Asuma flipped to the back of the book and the answer matched Naruto's so he praised him easily as they continued on; Naruto seemed unsure how to handle the positive reinforcement and Kakashi didn't hesitate to tease him any time he blushed in embarrassment from it.

Kakashi might have argued that the hour passed too quickly before the blonde's little gay friend – Kakashi wasn't blind – came interrupting at exactly 3:45. And he resisted, with his book pressed firmly over his mouth and nose to better shade his failing attempt at _not_ laughing, when Naruto grabbed his binder so quickly that the textbook slid to the floor and he apologized quickly before grabbing it and handing it to Asuma before darting for freedom.

"Idiot," Kakashi heard his friend greet in an affectionately mocking tone at his display of grace, and Naruto smacked him to alleviate all the frustration he'd been suppressing toward Kakashi in the past hour.

He couldn't catch what they were saying, but Kakashi knew they were arguing now by their tones as they drifted further away and closer to the parking lots.

They had such a strange relationship.

"He's not a normal kid," Kakashi stated as their voices drifted further away and he heard the blonde instigated something possibly more profound than usual with his raven haired companion by the retaliation in his habitually stoic tone.

"No, he's not."

"And he doesn't even know it."

"No, he doesn't."

Kakashi let the silence linger for a moment as he reveled in thought.

It was strange, that someone could be so smart and not even know it; or maybe he did. Maybe he knew it and maybe he knew keeping a thing like that quiet could become seriously advantageous. It wouldn't be difficult for a person in Naruto's shoes to fool just about anyone he cared to.

But Kakashi was sharp – and he was very sure that Naruto just underestimated his abilities; it's not like anyone _here_ told him he was smart and the theory of socialization would say his mind would reform itself to assume it was the norm. He was cast aside by society the second he scratched his young, clean record at fourteen, and Kakashi was positive that not one consistent human being told him he was doing well – that he was smart.

All kids should grow up feeling smart; confidence was the best catalyst to a young, igniting mind.

"I wonder how long a thing like that can last. It's almost naïve."

oOo

Sasuke turned the ignition heatedly and shot Naruto one last unimpressed glare for their argument – whatever it had been about; they rarely argued about anything notable, even if they often acted like every tiny thing was a really huge deal.

"I got two more detentions today," Naruto admitted from next to him in an exasperated tone as he leaned back against the seat rest, ignoring Sasuke's previous malice completely and eyes staring up at the ceiling of the car, "I can't stop screwing up."

"Dumbass," Sasuke breathed as he backed out of his parking space.

"You don't have to keep coming back to pick me up. I could take the bus."

Sasuke just glanced over at him as if that was a stupid thing to say and didn't address it further.

"It's not _that_ inconvenient you know," Naruto defended, a little self-conscious in the aftermath of Sasuke's superiority.

"For me it is."

Naruto just stared at him for a moment but he didn't bother asking him what that meant because part of him already knew and he just couldn't tackle that right now.

Still, he couldn't help but smile a little even though he tried so hard not to as he glanced out the window silently.

The rest of the evening progressed as usual and Naruto fell asleep half grinning as he stared out his bedroom window because he was so…he didn't _know_ what.

And he didn't know how to describe how he felt when Sasuke woke him up at 11:59 to inform him he was turning sixteen in about four seconds before nearly shoving the clock from his wall in his face.

His tired eyes watched the second hand tick twice before passing the twelve at the top and he shot Sasuke an incredulous smile and he laughed in disbelief.

How could he forget?

"Sit up," Sasuke recommended as he climbed onto the bed to sit with the blonde before glancing over at him with a heavy kind of expression that had Naruto a little apprehensive, although he wasn't sure why, "Remember when we were kids? And we had that stupid day camp during the summer?"

Naruto nodded, his smile fading a little nostalgically. Things were so different when he was living with the Uchihas.

"I made this thing for you when we were like nine, and it's totally stupid," he explained while he held out a hand, fist closed in gesture for Naruto to hold out his hand, palm up, and he did without hesitation because he always trusted Sasuke.

Sasuke's fingers uncurled and he dropped a black, hemp necklace into Naruto's palm – it was Sasuke's personality pretty much to a tee: black yarn, two silver beads, and a penne noddle dyed a light blue dangling from a hole at one end right between the two beads. It was very subtle and somehow perfect, even for a kid's craft.

"I only made it because the color of the noodle reminded me of…"

But he trailed off before finishing, eyes shifting from the blue noodle in Naruto's hand to Naruto's gaze; they really were the same color – it was so startling.

"Well I forgot I even made it by the time your birthday came along – I forgot about it entirely to be completely honest. I found it a few weeks after you went back with your mom last time and by then I was far too nostalgic to give it away."

Naruto was a little breathless; Sasuke was kind of blowing him away.

"Anyway, that's not your present. Well it is, but only part of it. It just explains your actual present, I guess."

And then he dropped a necklace into his hand next, strung with a fine black chord and two silver beads set on either of side of a light blue penne-noodle-shaped stone; Naruto couldn't stop smiling at it.

"That's a stone called Larimar – it's only found in the Dominican Republic. It was the closest match."

If he was speechless before, it was nothing compared to now.

"Happy birthday, dobe."

oOo

December arrived with snow, but not more than it usually came with; still, the transition was miserable and Sasuke sat on the ice cold concrete bench under the extended roof next to the counselors' office with a scowl on his face.

He hated poor weather damn it!

The doors opened to his left and he glanced over as he heard a relieved sigh escape tired lungs as Naruto stepped into the hallway where Sasuke was waiting for him.

"Feels great outside!" he exclaimed with an optimistic smile for someone who just had a mandatory disciplinary meeting with the principal and his counselor.

Sasuke raised one unamused eyebrow, because Naruto _would_ think something stupid like that. It didn't feel great outside. It was awful.

"So?" Sasuke mumbled as he stood and fell into step next to Naruto who glanced at him inquisitively, "What'd they say?"

"Something, something – do better; it's not important. Sasuke you didn't have to waste you're free block sitting here waiting for me."

"I can think for myself, dobe. Thanks. And you shouldn't take a disciplinary meeting so lightly."

"Thank you, Uchiha," a feminine voice praised in exasperation. Naruto glanced over with a scowl on his face and eyes narrowed at the woman exiting the guidance counselor's office, "At least you have one good thing going for you," Tsunade insulted playfully, eyes locked with Naruto's as she nodded toward Sasuke, "Maybe you should take a leaf out of his book."

Naruto curled his fists as he let out a noise of frustration when she left for the hallway that would take her back to her office and he turned and punched Sasuke in the arm.

"_Hey_," Sasuke complained as he turned to face the blonde more completely and a little defensively, "I didn't do anything wrong. She said it, not me."

"Well you started it! You're so – _perfect!_ It's gross!"

Sasuke couldn't help but smile at the way the word perfect rolled off Naruto's tongue in the exact definition of disgust. Sometimes, some of the things Naruto did reminded Sasuke of their childhood; and maybe sometimes Sasuke provoked him to react that way that made him feel nostalgic on purpose. Sometimes Naruto made it too easy.

"Are you done?" Sasuke asked, watching as Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly as he thought about it.

"Yeah," he confirmed with a grateful smile. But anything he had to say after was cut off by the bell and he sighed in exasperation when he realized he lost his entire break, "Damn it."

And _then_ he remembered that it was time for his ethics class and he threw frustrated fists toward the sky in injustice and Sasuke just watched as he expelled his vexation.

"No, no, Ethics, _no!_ _Eh!_"

"Stop stalling," Sasuke chastised while Naruto shot him a distressed glance.

"You don't understand Sasuke," he accused uneasily as his hands laced through blonde hair to yank in anguish, "It's almost the end of the semester and–"

"And that's all you're allowed to talk about, right?"

Naruto turned incredulous and incriminating eyes toward the voice of the man exiting the teacher's lounge from the door behind him and he felt his aggravation spike when his gaze fell upon Kakashi.

"Come on, let's go before you blow it. I have that one next semester," the silver haired man continued as he gestured toward Sasuke.

Naruto shot Sasuke one last irritated glance before following the man before him with an exaggerated and dramatic sigh, and when they got to his classroom, he and migrated over to his group's section as he did every day for this class; their entire class had grown so segregated by the group project, even lecture was spent in their own corners of the room to take notes.

Naruto found it all incredibly ridiculous. He found this _whole_ project ridiculous; it was a ridiculous excuse for a good way to break up any civility or class union they might have been able to have – and Naruto hated it.

Kakashi was so cruel.

This project just didn't make sense – there was no way it was permissible; but even _with_ all the adamant angry letters, e-mails, phone-calls, and office visits from parents upset about the project standards, Kakashi had yet to fail at talking someone out of thinking they could do anything about it. Eventually the adults learned to back off and seethe silently while they encouraged their child to take whatever means necessary; they weren't paying for this school for nothing – an A was absolutely required.

"Group leaders," Kakashi summoned as a student from four of five groups stood and made his or her way to the front of the room, "Fire country," the man continued before Naruto stood as well and shot his group a well-deserved glare for the nomination two months back; he hated this project and he hated that he _had_ to take an active roll it in – that was his job as the country's leader.

"Thank you for joining us," Kakashi greeted sarcastically, earning a glare with narrowed eyes from the blonde standing before him.

"Says the guy who's late more than he's not."

"I'm a teacher. I can do what I want."

"That doesn't make me respect you," Naruto assured quickly.

"Well how _does_ it make you feel?"

Naruto paused for a moment as he contemplated whether to open his mouth and let the words on his tongue roll out of his mouth.

_Hah!_ What was Kakashi gonna do about it? Give him detention?

"I think you're cruel."

"I love it when they think I'm cool."

"_Cruel!_ As in _mean, horrible, the worst ever!_"

"Please," the man began humbly with a hand up in gesture for him to stop, "You're only inflating my ego."

Naruto clenched the hands at his sides into frustrated fists and he bit his tongue with an irritated noise, eyes darting to the wall in an attempt to cool his head.

"You're sure easily riled up," Kakashi noticed with a hint of delight to his tone as he leaned forward in his chair in an attempt to grab his attention.

"You pursue abnormal hobbies," the blonde compensated with a discernible stab at Kakashi's tendency to rearrange situations in a direct attempt to earn such a result as Naruto 'riled up'.

"Fair enough," the man appointed as he flipped his book shut and leaned forward in his chair, "While we're on the subject, let's talk about our ethics project; you know, the one we've been working on since _October_. Neji," he addressed swiftly, earning the rapt attention of the pale-eyed brunette, "Who do you guys want to screw?"

"Naruto."

"Screw us and we'll screw you _twice _as hard! We have something like six times the land you have, stupid!"

"Yeah, and the four of us together have three and a half times the land _you_ have," Neji shot back as he waved toward the other three remaining group leaders.

"Except those three," Kakashi began as he inserted himself into their argument with a finger pointing back and forth between the triad of students that hadn't yet spoke up, "don't look like they agree very strongly with you."

"That's because they have an ounce or two of humanity," Naruto explained with a quick glance toward them, "We should all just take a B – everyone can still get A's by–"

"I can't get a B!" the brunette to his left interrupted as she shot Naruto an incredulous look, "It doesn't matter if we get an A in the class or not, it's still a B. My mother would _kill_ me. I cannot get a B, Naruto. Let's just throw that option out right now."

"I'm in the same boat," the young man next to her admitted softly. The final student didn't speak up but it wasn't hard to guess the same could be said for her as well.

"Let's make this more interesting. You're all acting far too rational about this whole thing," Kakashi cut in, voice finalizing as he stood from the chair at his desk, "Get into a discussion circle but stay in your groups," he instructed as the class rose and began to rearrange the desks as asked, "We'll be tackling that peace treaty we've been putting off for so many weeks now."

Kakashi was making this really personal; everyone was forced to look their old friends straight in the eye while they debated on who to fail – that's essentially what this was; no one really gave a fuck about the original project anymore. Not when it all came back to the ethics of it, which might have been ironic considering this _was_ an ethics class. This project sounded more like a world history assignment without any of the helpful facts from the actual, real world and its countries.

They spent nearly half an hour on debating the same stuff they debated every day: which countries deserved what because of whichever situations. But just as every other day, they had yet to come to a solid conclusion and that was probably because Kakashi had neglected to step in and mediate anything; they'd been flying solo for the most part.

But Kakashi made himself a part of the circle this time; and he looked ready to bring this entire thing to an end – and brutally.

"Ok," the man began as he cut through a student's argument on revenue, "This is all _so_ very interesting, but I'm incredibly bored and with our time schedule, we need to pick up the pace. Neji, who would you fail?"

"Naruto."

There was no hesitation and no waver in his voice and Naruto couldn't even summon the energy to defend himself anymore; it went this same way every time they discussed this. It just wasn't about debate or treaties anymore – they'd plowed head on into the part it came down to: the part where someone got failed.

So far no one else had been able to voice their opinion as openly as Neji.

"So we have one vote for Naruto – or should I say the Fire country. What a huge surprise," Kakashi mocked facetiously, "It's almost like this doesn't happen every single class period. Earth country, who do you vote for?"

"I – I – we…"

"We don't _have_ all semester anymore," the man interrupted as he addressed the entire class, gaze locked on the Earth country group leader, "We've been wasting all semester sitting here and starring at each other and it's time to make a damn decision! Who does your group vote for! Hesitate any longer and I'll just fail the group that doesn't vote quickly enough!"

Names and accusations began to rise up across the room after one name was listed off condemningly and it wasn't long before the arguing became so loud that Naruto wished he could hide from it; it really was overwhelming and he wasn't big on this type of confrontation.

"It _should_ be Naruto!" one of Earth country group members indicted over the noise while Naruto's gaze shifted toward the notebook on his desk as he smiled a little ironically. That was two votes for him – one more than anyone else had, "He already has a record – he has no chance as it is! One C won't hurt him any more than the record already has. We should fail them and they should fail him!"

It was quiet in the aftermath and a lot of people watched Naruto to see what he would do. Kiba and Shikamaru looked unhappy and Naruto shook his head slightly, eyes remaining downcast for a moment longer.

He wondered when that would get brought up; still…it stung worse than he'd anticipated.

"That's fine with me," Naruto reassured in heated tone, "I'm not voting anyway. I could _never_ live with myself if I was that kind of person! And in some amount of years, when you have all your materialistic desires satisfied, you'll ask yourself, was it worth it to step all over your friends to do it? Will it make all of this ok because you have more money to buy more _shit?_"

Several pairs of eyes glanced toward each other regretfully because no, the A suddenly _wasn't_ worth the friendships they ripped apart. Sure, the pressure emanating from nearly every adult surrounding each minute of their lives was difficult to deal with – but the people that made all that suck so much less, were the people some of them dumped in a hot minute for an A and no matter what, that type of betrayal could never be reversed.

"Nothing is worse than loneliness. _Nothing_. To have such an inanimate goal is–" but he cut himself off because it looked like something he wasn't too keen on sharing and it was probably a very personal belief from a very personal memory by the way he avoided meeting any of the thirty or so pairs of eyes watching him, "I refuse to vote against any of my classmates. I just can't do it; it's definitely not right. And if that's foolish–" he shook his head slightly and smiled a little bitterly for a small moment, "Then I'd rather be a fool my whole life."

It was a little strange to realize that without forcing themselves to pretend it didn't matter, more than anyone else, no one wanted all of this dumped on Naruto. He was the most genuine person most of them knew and no matter what, that kind of selfless personality was hard to dislike.

Kiba and Shikamaru shared a profound glance and neither of them could deny the admiration they felt for his bold statement; it was clear that he was genuine and he really wouldn't vote on anyone – not even Neji.

"Alright I think I've seen enough," Kakashi ended, earning a general wave of anxiety as several hands shot up.

"Well what does that mean? We haven't officially resolved the treaty–"

"I said I'd seen enough and that was what I meant. Unfortunately listening is an important skill in the adult world so you might have more pressing things to worry about."

The outspoken student looked taken aback and all over the room, students were shooting each other horribly repentant looks, and the classroom moral sunk to an all-time low as insecurity rolled off students left and right when they began to realize how far a stupid thing had been taken and Naruto just glared heatedly at Kakashi because of how cruel his little experiment on them had been.

"I think we all learned a lot today," Kakashi deemed steadily while almost every pair of eyes fell to rest on their desks; most students avoided meeting any other gaze because of the sarcastic anger in Kakashi's tone, "You'll get your grades tomorrow at the end of class."

The bell rang and it was an official end to a one-sided conversation because it was over and Kakashi left nothing to be said – other than the offensive slur about his record that Neji let slip as they were exiting the classroom that almost made him lose his head; he really might have were it not for Shikamaru and Kiba assuring him Neji was just a piece of crap and far from worth it.

The entire event replayed in his head without merciful end and by the end of the school day, he was mentally exhausted and could handle little more than lying there staring at the ceiling of his bedroom. Did people really think of him like that? Like his education wasn't really that important in comparison?

It fucking _sucked_ feeling insignificant.

Mikoto knew something was upsetting him the second he got home but she didn't bother him over it and he was at least grateful for that.

But she felt wary when Sasuke slipped into his room and closed the door behind him. They didn't do well locked away alone when Naruto was upset, especially because Sasuke usually targeted riling him up when he was already halfway there. It was like a compulsive habit he couldn't get rid of.

Twenty minutes – twenty minutes was all it took before there was a slam that sounded like a fist coming down forcefully on the surface of the desk under the window in Naruto's room.

"_You wanna say that again?_"

There was only a moment of silence before it was broken by a loud crash that sounded a lot like a chair hitting the wall and it wasn't difficult to assume Sasuke repeated whatever it was that ticked off Naruto – enough to bait him into throwing the folding chair at his desk across the room.

Sasuke had a way of provoking Naruto with words alone.

And Naruto? Naruto always fell for it.

There was loud arguing from both sides, very little of which was distinguishable to anyone other than the two of them, and a loud thud as they hit the floor in a struggle to both throw a punch and block the one coming.

"_Sasuke! Naruto!_ Quit it!" Mikoto screeched as she threw the door open and interrupted abruptly to smack at the two as they struggled roughly with each other. She grabbed them each by the hair and yanked hard enough to get them to pay attention to _something_ other than the urge to beat the crap out of each other.

They both pulled back from the sharp pain in an attempt to ease it by leaning into her forceful grasp.

"You two need to grow up! And settle down!" she yelled and both of them nodded to agree with her so she'd let them go. They would have agreed to anything she said.

"Sasuke just go to your room! And Naruto stay in yours! And do some homework or something quiet!"

She released her hold on them and Sasuke got up and left in a breeze of anger and frustration while Naruto stuck his tongue out at his retreating back.

"You're very lucky you're so cute," Mikoto chastised in an _almost_ intimidating tone before she left and shut the door behind her before leaving down the hall for the staircase to return to the living room.

But Naruto scooted over toward the door as soon as her footfall faded and cracked it open from where he sat on the floor to find Sasuke sitting in a small opening in his doorway as well, glaring straight at him.

"You suck so much," Naruto hissed from down the hall, earning an angry glare as Sasuke shook his head slowly.

"You're the biggest idiot I've ever met in my life."

"I was kicking your ass, you're _so_ lucky your mom came to your rescue, you stupid jerk."

"As if – just because you say you were doing well, doesn't mean it's true."

"_Likewise!_"

They were both fuming because they were always at an impasse when they fought; physically and verbally – because they were so alike and so different and, more than anything, both of them hated to lose or draw. Nothing was like winning and neither of them would accept anything less.

"Look at all this sexual tension."

Both sets of eyes darted up to see Sakura standing at the end of the hallway and neither of them was sure how long she'd been there.

Naruto gritted his teeth at the words she left lingering in the stale air because it was an arguable theory and he didn't want to face it yet.

So he slammed his door shut in denial and kept to himself until dinner.

oOo

It was nearing seven-thirty during dinner at the Uchiha's when Naruto began to get suspicious. Mikoto and Fugaku kept shooting each other looks – _looks_; like the kind people exchanged when there was something they would eventually have to talk about.

Usually it correlated with an uncomfortable subject or something that was difficult to talk about.

And he was a little worried about it. Did he fuck up worse than he'd anticipated in his ethics class or something?

"What?" Sasuke snapped, earning a strange look from the blonde who followed Sasuke's incriminating gaze back toward his parents, "Just get it over with. Spit it out."

Apparently Sasuke noticed the looks too.

Mikoto looked toward Fugaku before smiling gently as she turned her attention toward the minors at the table.

"We'd like to hear each of your opinions on something," she began, earning a skeptical look from her youngest biological son.

"_That's_ what this is about? I don't know why you bother asking. Just sign the papers and bring the kid home."

Naruto glanced toward him with furrowed eyebrows and he felt really out of the loop by the comprehension he managed to find on Sakura's face. He looked like the only one unable to follow.

"We want to foster another child," Fugaku finally explained for him, gaze directed straight at Naruto – he at least seemed perceptive enough to understand that Naruto was the only child at the table that hadn't been living here when they decided to open their home to another kid. Sasuke got this talk every time they wanted to bring another child home and Sakura got it before they took in Naruto.

But this would be the first time a new kid would be entering the home while he was living there and he was a little excited.

"Hell yeah!" he exclaimed as he slammed his chopsticks down on the table to expel his anticipation, "Let's do it!"

There was a general hum of agreement from both Sakura and Itachi as well but it wasn't like they expected anything less; still, it was the principle of the matter – they deserved to add their own input. They lived here too.

"He's nine," Mikoto began to explain with a renewed vigor to her tone, "And he's so cute! But he's been in five homes in the last five months – this'll be his sixth; and if he can't settle down soon, he'll get put in a group home."

Naruto glanced toward her raptly because he went to a group home once for a few months after getting out of juvenile hall – living in a group home was a little bit better than juvie, if he was forced to say something nice about it. Just about the only difference between the two was having the privilege of attending school with his former classmates instead of getting what was, arguably, a far better education in his child prison. Oh, and in prison, he shared a room with one other person. At the group home, they shoved eight people into a two bedroom apartment; two of which were adults – one, the resident manager – and it goes without saying they had one room to themselves.

He didn't wish living in a group home on any child.

"His social worker says he's having a really difficult time dealing with the adjustment and he hasn't found a good fit yet; he's got a pretty good sized path of destruction trailing behind him. But you know how we love trouble," she teased as she reached out to poke Naruto on the nose twice.

"Hey I'm the good one! Sasuke's the bad kid."

"Says the guy signed up for detention through the next semester. That puts you at a median of two a day with a range of _six_ – dobe, you haven't gone _one_ day without getting detention."

"Give me a break! It's really hard!"

Sasuke shot him that look – the one he saved for when he was exceptionally unimpressed; every other student in the school seemed capable of going not just _one_ day without detention, but nearly _every_ _single_ _day_.

Here and there another student would pop in for detention and they usually spent it, head down, crying their eyes out; Naruto couldn't empathize with that. It sounded like such a stupid thing to be upset about.

Although, if he forced himself to look at it objectively; rich kids got abused too – and you didn't have to physically hurt a person to abuse the hell out of them either. Manipulation was a powerful thing and anyone could use it discreetly if they wanted to; the two together was a notably horrible combination.

"Can you two focus? For like, _two minutes_ without arguing?" Sakura scolded in an irritated tone.

"What's his name?" Itachi asked before either of the two could rise to defend himself.

Mikoto smiled with her hands clasped together in front of her chest like she had the sweetest thought on her mind.

"Konohamaru!"

oOo

The next afternoon came too fast and his lunch period slipped away so swiftly and he was positive it was because he had no desire whatsoever to return to his ethics class.

But 12:25 rolled around and he was seated at his desk and Kakashi was holding a stack of papers in his hands.

Those must be the papers they turned in two weeks ago on the theories of ethics – the paper they were all required to write. The assignment had been vague and some people wrote it with examples from the group project while a good proportion of other students didn't.

And everyone was nervous.

"Your grades," Kakashi explained as he held up the papers before proceeding to pass them out individually.

Naruto glanced down when his paper was dropped on his desk and he stared at it for a moment because he wasn't sure what he was reading; why was his final grade 106?

He glanced up incredulously but Kakashi was already on his way toward the next row and he didn't take his eyes off him until he was finished and back at the front of the room, watching them as they glanced around unsurely in an attempt to quietly communicate with each other.

"You all did well on your papers – some of you referenced the project and that's ok; I factored in cogency of argument for extra credit so some of you did pretty well. Have any of you noticed yet that the grades you've received on your papers is your final project grade?"

Several incredulous inquiries popped up across the room but not so loud that any single one was addressable.

Not until Naruto spoke up.

"So you had us do all that for _nothing_."

"I had you do all that for nothing," Kakashi affirmed easily, "Some of you did horrible things to innocent people you cared for…_for nothing_. And all because you were told to do so; those who don't follow the rules are scum. But those who abandon their companions are _worse_ than scum!"

Every eye was glued to him and it was a bit frightening to see Kakashi angry because it was genuine and it wasn't comedic.

"Unfortunately I'm not allowed to grade you on if you're a piece of crap with no sense of ethics or not – just if you know how to identify one. But I _can_ say one thing unwaveringly, 'this group of silly teenagers can at least determine who might stick around and who won't hesitate to crush their hopes and dreams to get to the top'. You deserve at least that much: just a small, glimpse at reality in the real world."

Few students' eyes were lifted higher than the height of their desks and Naruto stared at Kakashi incredulously because it was the first time Kakashi wouldn't meet his gaze and he had the vague feeling that the man wasn't addressing him and it was incredible how he managed to get singled out in _everything_.

"You're welcome," he finished in a clipped tone, "And you're dismissed."

The bell rang less than seconds after his voice faded and Naruto remained in his seat while his classmates silently exited the room with as much haste as possible.

And when the door swung shut Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back with a smile on his lips.

"What kind of a person gets away with an experiment like that, even at a private school?"

"A person with a double-doctorate from the University of Tokyo," Kakashi explained easily as he pointed toward the clock, "See you in detention."

And he did see him in detention and for the first time he wasn't really dreading it because he was starting to enjoy talking to Kakashi when their conversations were less focused on the project and more based on the fact that Naruto harbored a very good sense of ethics and Kakashi could more than appreciate that.

Plus, tonight was Friday they were getting Konohamaru.

oOo

Konohamaru was nothing like Naruto was expecting. He cried a lot and not the healthy kind of crying; it was nonstop and he never looked like he might smile. Not once in the two days he'd been here had he seen him stop for longer than a silent moment which he usually spent staring off at nothing in particular.

This wasn't healthy; his parents died _five months_ ago – he needed to be learning how to handle his grief better than this by now.

They spent Friday through Sunday trying to warm him up to the home and by Sunday night, when they were putting him to bed, they all felt unsure of how to make this work when all he did was sit there and cry regardless of what they did.

But Naruto was going put an end to it; he crossed the room and grabbed the child by the shoulders firmly but gently and Konohamaru looked up at him swiftly.

"Stop crying," he demanded evenly. The child held his breath momentarily, eyes waiting – craving for further instruction; most children thrived on structure and Naruto had a vague idea that he and Konohamaru might have a few things in common, "You have to stop crying. You can't just cry forever."

"But I can't stop," the child denied in a defeated tone.

So Naruto did the first thing that came to his mind –and that was exactly what his mother had done for _him_ when he was a grieving child.

"Can I tell you a story?" he asked, earning a gentle nod from the child with wide, glassy eyes, "A mother had a little boy of seven years who was so attractive and good-natured that no one could look at him without liking him, and he was dearer to her than anything else in the world."

Konohamaru stiffened and Naruto could tell he was listening. Word for word, he could recall his mother's words from that night _he_ couldn't stop crying.

"Now it happened that he suddenly became ill, and God called him home. The mother could find no solace, and she cried day and night. However, soon after his burial, the child began to appear every night at those places where he had sat and played while still alive. When the mother cried, he cried as well, but when morning came he had disappeared."

Konohamaru stared at Naruto with an impressive amount of awe and a tinge of guilt because he had planted a deep seed and that much was easily clear. His tears stemmed momentarily and Naruto could tell these words were hitting home.

"The mother did not cease crying, and one night he appeared with the white shirt in which he had been laid into his coffin, and with the little wreath on his head, he sat down on the bed at her feet and said, 'Oh, mother, please stop crying, or I will not be able to fall asleep in my coffin, because my burial shirt will not dry out from your tears that keep falling on it.' This startled the mother, and she stopped crying. The next night the child came once again. He had a little light in his hand and said, 'See, my shirt is almost dry, and I will be able to rest in my grave.' Then the mother surrendered her grief to God and bore it with patience and peace, and the child did not come again, but slept in the little bed beneath the earth." (1)

The child stared at Naruto with wide eyes and it took him a moment to answer because he was a little breathless and he was feeling more in control of himself.

His new brother was kinda cool.

"Do you understand, Konohamaru? You have to move on."

The child nodded softly, eyes a bit distant as he let this new concept roll over on his mind.

"Who had to tell _you_ that story?" he whispered, his soft tone sensitive and curious. Naruto had to give the little monster credit; he was more perceptive of other people than he let on.

"Heh," Naruto laughed, lips smirking at the child's wit, "My mom," he continued in a sobering tone, as his smirk faded to a sad sort of smile.

"Where's your mom now?" the child asked in a doleful tone; he was smart enough to anticipate what sort of answer he'd get.

"She's gonna be at the hospital for a while," he explained carefully, earning a curious and somewhat disappointed look for his candid answer; it was obvious the child knew Naruto was watering things down for him, "How old are you?"

"Nine."

Naruto smiled for a second at the irony.

"I was nine too when I came here first."

"I'm scared," the child admitted in a soft whisper as his gaze fell to the floor, "I'm all alone!"

"I felt that way too," Naruto assured in a steady tone. Konohamaru glanced back up when he processed the words, "It's normal so don't worry over it."

"What if they hate me?" the brunette whispered with a hand over his mouth to block anyone other than Naruto from getting the message. Everyone heard anyway but they pretty much pretended not to.

"I'm not sure they can. Want to know what I did my first week here?" Naruto continued in an uplifting tone that had the child growing curious.

"What?"

"I lit the kitchen on fire."

The child cracked a smile and it was _genuine_.

"So unless you top that, I don't think they're gonna hate you."

His smile faded and it wasn't long before he was bowing his head to hide his tears and it was even less time before he threw his arms around Naruto's midriff and cried for a pretty good amount of time.

Konohamaru had been in five different homes in less than half a year – this would be his sixth. He'd moved around very quickly in a very short amount of time. He probably figured no one wanted him anymore and it was their job to show this small, lost child that someone in the world still needed him.

"It's ok to be sad. It's ok to be ready to move on too. You'll be ok, kiddo," he promised in a genuine tone.

"I'm n-not a kid," he defended in a muffled voice through Naruto's t-shirt.

"Right," the blonde agreed with a smile. Konohamaru looked up, face wet with recent tears but eyes drying and less glassy than moments ago. He hadn't really expected Naruto to agree with him, "Wanna know something I haven't told anyone? I promised not to but I can't help it," the blonde began, earning a hesitant sort of look from Mikoto and an excited stare from the child before him.

"Tell me!"

"Mimi back there," he began as he pointed back toward her with a jerk of his thumb, "She started the whole fire."

"Naruto-kun!" Mikoto chastised halfheartedly and mostly in disbelief as she smiled and threw her arms halfway up in accusation, "That was supposed to be our secret!"

"Mikoto, you did what?"

Konohamaru was laughing and it was sort of incredible how quickly Naruto could change the mood of a situation.

"They'll love you, regardless of what you do. It's just their job and they're really good at it," Naruto finished with an affectionate look to his left at the adults standing near the end of the bed.

Mikoto looked downright warm and friendly and Fugaku looked sternly bored.

"He always looks like that," Naruto whispered, eyes still glued to the adults but hand covering his mouth as he whispered to the child before him. Konohamaru shot him an inquisitive look and he returned his gaze to the kid's to reassure him, "But he's normal, I'll show you."

He got up and Mikoto and Fugaku watched as he approached them. He circled behind Fugaku and Konohamaru watched with curiosity and with absolute attention as Naruto pinched Fugaku in an area around his mid-back near his ribcage that had him laughing hard as he turned and twisted to get Naruto off of him.

"Naruto! Quit it!" he yelled through his laughter as he quickly smacked the blonde's hand away.

"See! He's human. Sasuke and Itachi are the same way but once you get used to it, it's just funny."

He got a couple unimpressed glares and he felt safe assuming where they were from while Konohamaru and Mikoto laughed genuinely hard, all because of the look on Fugaku's face when Naruto had tickled him. Maybe some people shouldn't smile.

Two days later, around Konohamaru's bedtime, Naruto heard laughter followed by a child-like chorus of hysterical amusement as little feet ran down the hallway and Fugaku was yelling Konohamaru's name – but not without accidentally calling him Naruto first.

And about four days after _that_, Konohamaru snuck up behind Fugaku first thing in the morning to pinch that same spot Naruto had shown him. But Fugaku turned quickly and grabbed him. He picked him up with ease and Konohamaru was already in a fit of giggles as he was thrown down on the couch and Fugaku proceeded to tickle the hell out of him.

He pulled back after a good fifteen seconds and patted the child on the head as he gave him a soft, "That's how it's done, kiddo," and Konohamaru continued with hysterical laugher even after Fugaku stopped tickling him and Naruto knew right away that he wasn't going anywhere after this home.

Yep, they were going to love him; and they were going to fall in love fast.

oOo

The first of the year arrived colder than when December had; and Naruto was enjoying the last night of his winter break before returning to school for the next semester.

He got his report card yesterday: one A, two B's and two C's – damn it that wasn't half bad considering what he had to work with and he couldn't wait to shove it in his counselor's face.

Sasuke kissed him yesterday when no one else was home; if you could call it that – it was more like a quick peck that he didn't even have time to respond to. Still, it was his first kiss if you didn't count that accidental one when he was twelve; the fact that Sasuke was also involved in that was unrelated – Naruto insisted so to himself routinely.

This time, Sasuke claimed it was because of the mistletoe leftover in the kitchen entryway from Christmas, but Naruto was pretty sure it had nothing to do with that.

And then there was that small problem he had where just thinking about it made his lips burn and his cheeks hot.

It was difficult to analyze his relationship with Sasuke – or whatever it was. They definitely had something going on between them. But it was unspoken and undefined. It left him like this – spending hours alone as the sun set, leaving his room almost as dark as the starlit sky outside as the early evening commenced.

His bedroom door cracked open with a soft click and the light from the hallway spilled in as a smaller human snuck into the room, closing the door gently behind him.

Konohamaru proceeded to crawl into bed and lie down quietly, as if not to disturb the blonde.

"Konohamaru – I'm not asleep," he assured as he watched the child get comfortable.

"I know."

"And I'm not _going_ to sleep either!"

"Well then why's your light off?"

"I was thinking!"

"That's a lie!"

Naruto turned flat on his back and raised a fist toward the ceiling as he scowled and reigned in his patience. Konohamaru was pretty sassy.

"It's not a lie that I think! Everyone thinks!"

"Please, Naruto-nii-chan? I don't want to be alone!"

"Heh," he laughed softly as he shot the child a reassuring smile, "Ok, but only because you asked so nicely. Good manners."

Konohamaru looked breathless with how easily Naruto gave up the rest of his night for him and he didn't really know any other way to respond than with an incredulous smile; he was too happy to care that Naruto was mocking him a little with the way he was talking to him like he was a preschooler. He was in fourth grade now! He was a big kid! Next year he was going to have a First Grade buddy and what better way was there to prove you were a big kid other than a buddy?

"Did you set your alarm for school?" he asked as the child turned away on his side, still smiling, in an attempt to hide his embarrassment.

"Yes."

"Well then you'd better go turn it off, dumbass. Don't repeat dumbass."

Konohamaru was in a fit of giggles as he took off to unset his clock-radio alarm, and when he returned, he dove back under covers with a screech of glee and Naruto laughed in indignation when the child hit him in the chest – on accident or purpose, he wasn't really sure. But it was a little miraculous how easily Konohamaru was so beyond content; although, thinking back on _his_ childhood, he could empathize with the feeling after his dad died and his mother turned to drugs.

It felt like hell and it happened in the course of what felt like days. His dad was gone and his mother wasn't really his mother anymore and he was completely alone in the world. He didn't have friends at school other than Sasuke really. They were somewhat socially out casted by economic status. Not to mention Naruto's behavior; he was routinely in trouble for fighting and disrespecting school staff – there was always that one kid that got singled out as the 'bad kid' and the parents usually never let it go; he was expected to act out so he did. He was '_bad'_ so he acted _bad_.

But he never acted up for his mother or the Uchiha's – it was only at school; where there were a lot more people to judge him.

And after his dad died, he was always in trouble for having his head in the clouds but he couldn't help it – school was so boring and he couldn't focus when he so strongly longed to see his dad again.

And then there was Kyuubi…

"What's wrong?"

"Just thinking," Naruto reminded with an amused smile at Konohamaru's perception, "Mind your business you brat."

"I'm not a brat! And you'd better be careful. I learned the brain is a muscle and you can strain a muscle, _definitely_. So…" the child trailed off suggestively as his eyes darted up in an attempt at some sort of subtlety that might have been mocking.

"You're asking for it," Naruto threatened in a flat tone. Was he really like this as a kid? Everyone kept saying so. It made his chest ache with melancholy when he thought about those small broken parts of his childhood where he actually got to be a kid and he knew Konohamaru was close to being where he was at, at that age. He reached over and rubbed his head affectionately in assurance, "But I won't kick you out if you shape up."

Konohamaru merely shot him an impish smile before turning back over and Naruto vaguely heard a muffled '_ok!_' from where he buried his face in his pillow.

"Plus the brain is definitely an organ, not a muscle!" Naruto suddenly realized aloud, earning a chorus of laughter from the child that suggested he might have known that all along.

"Dumbass."

"I said _don't_ repeat dumbass!"

But it's not like he actually expected Konohamaru _not_ to repeat it – children see, children do.

Just evaluating his own life and the difference in environmental situations between the Uchiha's and his own home, he could definitely accept that he was a completely different person when he was forced into a corner and he hated knowing that; no one can say what they'd do in a split second – you don't know until it's done.

And Sasuke was going to get caught up in it and that was why he felt conflicted about confronting their relationship.

Sasuke kept throwing signals – but Naruto just let them fly. He had to; for now he couldn't tackle that.

In his ideal situation, Sasuke could wait for him.

oOo

When Naruto returned to school from winter break, he expected to be miserable; but he wasn't expecting all the odd looks and the whispering as he passed people – he was positive they got over that a few weeks after finding out about his record and whatever else Neji spread around.

So what was this all about?

"Naruto? What are you doing here?" Kiba asked as he approached Naruto and Sasuke quickly while the blonde was putting things away in his locker – maybe Kiba could give him some insight; he seemed to understand why people were staring at him so strangely.

"What do you mean? I go to school here! Why the hell is everyone staring at me like that?" he asked as someone passed by, shooting him a subtle yet isolating glance.

"So wait, you're not expelled then?" Kiba asked in a slightly cautious tone.

"_Why the hell would I be here if I got expelled?_"

The surrounding students seemed to watch with wide eyes and the whispering got quiet as several stopped to watch as Kiba hushed him with a quick glance around to shake any staring eyes.

"Ok well there was just a small rumor – probably no one heard it…" Kiba trailed off unconvincingly.

Naruto sighed in defeat as he glanced off distantly, his gaze falling upon Neji standing in the background behind Kiba and he was alert by the way Neji smirked and waved in a way that looked like he was way too proud of himself.

"Naruto?" Sasuke questioned as he followed his gaze to find Neji approaching them in that haughty way he carried himself.

"I might have started a friendly little rumor to make sure you didn't forget that you're a complete piece of trash. I didn't want some dumb criminal getting the wrong idea about where he stands in society."

"You wanna do this again?" Naruto yelled as he approached Neji the final two steps that separated them, "Because if I'm such a worthless delinquent then maybe I should start acting like one!" he screamed as his hands gripped the front of his blazer before he roughly shoved the taller up against the nearest locker which was several feet away from his own.

The surrounding students formed a loud circle quickly and Sasuke contemplated if he should step in or not.

Neji didn't look uneasy and Sasuke kind of wished he would, just to calm Naruto down. He'd seen the things Naruto was capable of doing to people and he feared for the same to happen here; he was positive it wouldn't end as easily as it did at their old school. He wished Neji knew that because he was pretty sure the brunette had no idea he was poking the bear.

"At least my mom isn't a tweaked out prostitute."

What happened next was a bit of a blur, but Naruto's fist met Neji's jaw and he tackled the taller to the floor immediately after. They landed on the ground, Neji on his back and Naruto sitting atop him.

He was beating the crap out of Neji and Sasuke didn't want to tell him to stop because he thought Neji kind of deserved it.

So he didn't; he passively watched with nothing but a filthy little smirk.

Naruto's hands laced through the front of Neji's shirt and he yanked up before shoving him back down roughly. Neji was slammed against the floor hard enough to keep him still for a moment and Naruto leaned forward closer to assure Neji would hear what he had to say.

"My mom does not _tweak_; she does not smoke _meth_. You have no idea the _shit_ she's been forced to do just so she could raise me. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on my list. Keep talking and I will rip the tongue right out of your _fucking_ mouth you piece of shit, quit _fucking_ with me!"

Neji didn't think Naruto was kidding because he _wasn't_. Naruto had been _raised_ with violence; he didn't think Naruto would hesitate to pull through with his threat if provoked to do so – maybe not literally, but figuratively and that was scary enough.

"Naruto, stop."

Naruto obeyed abruptly because the voice addressing him was an adult's and his rationalization washed over him as he stood quickly, watching as Asuma approached them lazily; Naruto was unsure about his demeanor. He was very calm, maybe overly so, but maybe he was just used to far worse being a cop and everything.

Neji sat up and glared heatedly at Naruto as he held his nose as it bled but he looked fine other than that – the bruises would probably surface soon though; Naruto couldn't wait to see them.

"Would you guys mind making sure Neji gets to the nurse for me while I have a word with Naruto?" Asuma asked, earning several nods and a hesitant shrug of the shoulders from Sasuke who looked as if he'd rather stick around.

Naruto just stood uneasily motionless, anxious and penitent eyes locked on some part of the floor as the group disappeared down the hall and around a corner – people got in a lot of trouble at schools like this for fighting, didn't they?

Asuma opened his classroom door and Naruto sighed in resignation as he passed through the threshold toward what would probably be a long, irritating lecture.

"I probably should have stepped in sooner, but I wanted you to at least get a couple solid ones in there."

Naruto's jaw went a little slack but he pulled his mouth shut quickly as he turned to face the man more completely, eyes inquisitive and somewhat incredulous as the man pulled out a cigarette and pried open the window before lighting it and leaning along the sill as he took a long drag.

"I heard the crack at your mom," the man continued to explain while Naruto's features sobered and he reigned in the anger boiling at the pit of his stomach from the mere memory of it, "And don't tell anyone about this," he added in a tone of feigned threat.

"About what? Beating up a kid and not getting in trouble or the fact that you're smoking in the classroom?"

Naruto couldn't help but ache to have one but he didn't say it or let it show as Asuma laughed, smoke coming from his lips in soft, thick clouds that correlated with his laughter.

"Neither. If anyone asks, I really got through to you, ok?"

Naruto smiled and felt a small part of him swell with something foreign – he was pretty sure it was appreciation but maybe it was something new; he wasn't positive since this was the first time an adult other than Mikoto or Fugaku was actually trying to help him out.

So it probably wouldn't really be stretching the truth to say that Asuma had really planted a deep seed.

Still, he felt somewhat skeptical.

"Why are you doing this?"

There had to be an ulterior motive.

"I grew up in a group home after age six; my parents were absorbed by the same addiction your mom struggles with. People told me all my life that I'd never amount to anything but look at me now," he explained as he raised a hand lazily in a half shrug, "I'm about to marry the woman of my dreams and I've got two jobs I love very much. Don't listen to Neji. You'll beat the odds, I know you will."

Naruto gazed at him for a long moment as Neji's insult swirled around his cognition and he felt the sudden urge to defend his mother overpower him and words were spilling out of his mouth before he could really think them over or pull them back.

"My mom, she's not – she doesn't want–I mean…"

He struggled to put the words he wanted to say together and it was probably because saying what he wanted to involved the words 'my mom' and 'prostitution' and he wasn't sure he really wanted to say it out loud; he always kind of skirted around the word 'prostitute' even in his thoughts and _those_ were something no one could touch.

He wasn't entirely sure why he had such a difficult time facing that term but it was probably because he felt irrationally angry when he thought of the things Kyuubi forced his mom to do.

"People underestimate the power an addiction has on a person," Asuma added, eyes shifting away toward something else and Naruto glanced up at him.

He couldn't deny the refreshing truth to the statement; people _did_ underestimate the complexity behind the word 'need', and it felt invigorating to be reminded that he wasn't alone on the perspective he held.

"You're a good kid in a bad place with a really great opportunity in front of you. Grab on to it and never let go; show them what you're capable of."

Naruto let the words wash over him slowly and he felt a sense of determination dawn over him because…Asuma was _right_. Attending this school was the opportunity of a _lifetime_ for him and he was definitely going to take complete advantage of it.

Not just to prove it to everyone else – but for himself too; because he could learn a lot and someday he might need it.

"_Uzumaki Naruto to the front office _now_!_"

Naruto stared at the intercom with narrowed eyes and lips forming a soft 'o' moments after Tsunade's voice faded away and Asuma shot him a sympathetic look.

"Looks like Neji ratted you out," the man voiced in a regretful tone.

Naruto didn't verbally respond other than a condemned sigh as he made his way to the door and pulled it open before shooting Asuma a conflicted look.

"Thanks for um – trying."

oOo

He'd been screamed at – oh geeze he'd never heard someone scream so much in his _life!_ Tsunade was almost blue in the face and Naruto's complete lack of remorse was only making it worse.

But he definitely wasn't about to pretend like kicking Neji's ass wasn't completely amazing and one-hundred percent called for.

He didn't care what happened.

"I'm sorry Naruto but you're suspended."

"_What?_" he protested as the gravity of the situation began to sink in.

"You can't beat other students up! You just can't! You're lucky I'm only giving you a day of suspension; kids get expelled for much less," the woman chastised in a tired voice, "I've gone out on every limb there is for you."

Naruto was killing her; she didn't know what to do with him anymore.

But Mikoto did; and by the time they got home after she picked him up from school, Naruto was begging her to talk to him but she apologized and reminded him that this was his punishment and that it very much hurt her too, but it was a punishment he earned and he had to own up to it – so he was sent to his room and he wasn't allowed to talk to anyone until dinner.

Isolation _killed_ Naruto.

But he needed to think about the consequences his actions brought to the people around him without any external opinions painting colors on his knowledge of what happened; he didn't need someone making excuses for him.

He would never get suspended again – not if it was going to put Mikoto through this much grief; he felt horrible.

It was incredible what a different approach could do in the study of discipline.

And he was achingly reminded of his father.

Dinner was cooking and he hadn't even attempted to leave the solitude of his room when Mikoto opened the door and let herself in.

"Even though you made a bad choice, you're not a bad kid, and we'll always love you," she promised as she cupped his face and kissed him on the forehead, "I got us a movie for tomorrow," she added in a whisper – like no one was supposed to know.

And probably, they weren't – but that was part of his relationship with Mikoto; he needed at least one person that gave him a break: at least one person that spoiled the hell out of him.

He didn't care what anyone said about him; he would cherish every precious thing he had.

oOo

1. This story is called The Burial Shirt and it's written by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. I know it seems strange for Naruto to know a story of German descent, especially when I could have gone with The Parable of the Mustard Seed, which has Buddhist roots and would have been more ideal to suit his Japanese culture, but The Mustard Seed was more about the whole 'death happens everywhere so get over it' rather than the more affectionate setting in The Burial Shirt. So I went with that :]


	8. Chapter 8: Trust Issues

I'm coming at you with a curve ball! So sit down and take it! TAKE IT!

**Chapter Eight: Trust Issues**

A year passed quickly; time usually did when Naruto was with the Uchihas – and during that time, Naruto ended up finding that he'd failed his first semester of sophomore year from his previous absences during the beginning of the school year when he was still living with his mother and he felt frustrated that he'd wasted so much time.

He was going to repeat his classes this coming term, finish the second half of the year at the beginning of junior year, and graduate a semester late.

But he enrolled himself in a full semester of independent study just to keep up with them, and Fugaku wasn't even mad that he'd forged his signature to do it because Naruto was desperate to keep up and it's not like he was doing something _wrong_. Hard work should be rewarded, right?

He spent almost every moment of his time from the seventh of January when school resumed from winter break to the last Friday of July when summer break began with his nose in a book, or his face pressed up against the pages of whichever study material he fell asleep against at the desk in his room.

Sasuke couldn't count the amount of times he'd dragged Naruto from his desk to his bed and he wasn't sure how many times he _hadn't_ found him like that and he wouldn't be surprised if he slept through the night that way.

Naruto earned a lot of respect from quite a number of people when he actually completed both semesters with straight A's, and Sasuke didn't blame him when he got home and slept fifteen hours straight after completing his last final before summer vacation. Sasuke was pretty sure Naruto didn't sleep the week of finals, but he couldn't be sure. It _was_ the first time he slept through breakfast.

And now, it was the second Tuesday of January in his junior year of high school and when Sasuke woke up this morning, he didn't consider that it would go the way it was about to. They had been halfway through breakfast when there was an urgent knock on the door; that in itself had been odd.

Each eye shifted toward Mikoto as she stood, making her way to her front door with curious eyes.

She'd handle it; Naruto shrugged to himself as the thought passed through his mind until the lock slid free and the door was opened and a voice wafted through the stale air long enough to reach him.

His eyes shifted toward an empty section of the table because he knew exactly who was at the door and Sasuke watched reality set in subtly across Naruto's features; Sasuke got the vague impression he didn't really want to go back.

Sasuke's calculating gaze watched Naruto as he set his chopsticks down; he was the only one with eyes anywhere but the front door – other than Sasuke himself of course.

"Naruto?" his mother's voice called from behind him.

He wasn't sure why he was unprepared, maybe because CPS usually gave him a heads-up before he switched homes so he was caught a little off guard – but Kushina had everything she needed and Fugaku flipped through the letters of approval from the judge in his hands with a shade of disappointment across his placid features. Not one person was glad to see Naruto go.

Naruto turned and gave his best shot at a genuine smile, and that must have been enough for her because she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a swift hug that he couldn't help but return because his mother never hugged him – it only ever happened during that one time during whatever year when she would pretend to be sober enough to regain his custody and he wished his mother could be this affectionate all the time because then maybe she'd give up the needle and Kyuubi would go away and they'd move into a nice apartment somewhere further away from where they were now.

Although he knew none of that would happen: not unless Kyuubi was _dead_; because in reality, she didn't really have as much of a choice as he convictingly and naïvely believed at times. Plus, Kyuubi was their source of income…

She pulled back and her features fell at how forlorn Naruto suddenly seemed; it was clear how suddenly uncomfortable he'd become and she placed a hand on his cheek.

"What's wrong, baby?" she asked while Naruto's gears shifted and he focused on trying to lie himself out of making his mother feel guilty.

"I just realized I completely blew off a project due tomorrow," he explained in a tone that sounded convincing enough.

Sasuke wasn't sure how to interpret the look on Naruto's face, but he looked completely unprepared and Sasuke wasn't quite sure what that would mean because he'd never seen Naruto unprepared.

"Well, worry about it a little later, ok? I have a surprise for you," the woman promised in a genuine tone.

Sasuke wondered where Naruto's suspicion was rising from because his features looked skeptical and subtly wary but the red haired woman seemed so sincere.

Mikoto looked quickly toward Fugaku, lips mouthing the word 'school' quickly to which he nodded immediately to.

"Naruto we still want you to go to Konoha Academy. We've already paid for it so you should still go, ok?"

Naruto's mother glanced at him inquisitively and Naruto attempted to avoid her gaze.

"I go to school with Sakura-chan now," he explained as he picked at the sleeve of his uniform; he'd just changed for school.

"How nice!" Kushina exclaimed with a smile toward her son who glanced up at her hesitantly. She wasn't mad? Naruto was positive she'd be mad – sometimes she got upset when the Uchihas gave him something she couldn't, "You look so handsome in your uniform," she complimented proudly, earning am embarrassed blush across Naruto's whiskered cheeks.

"Can I go grab some stuff?" he mumbled in a distracted tone. Sasuke wasn't really sure how to interpret it because he was sure now that Naruto didn't want to go back – every single person in this room including Kushina saw it. And Sasuke wasn't sure how to feel about _her_ either; she looked aware of Naruto's reluctance but not nearly as concerned as she probably should have been.

"Sure, I'll wait by the car, ok?"

He left for the stairs without really acknowledging that he'd even heard her and Sasuke didn't hesitate to take off after him.

"Naruto," the brunette called as he hurried to catch up, "Dobe, _wait_!"

"Sakura-chan, who is that?" Konohamaru whispered meekly from behind a hand raised up to make his question seem more discreet.

But Sasuke didn't hear a reply if there was one as he followed Naruto closely down the hall toward his bedroom.

Naruto slammed his bedroom door shut behind them before shoving Sasuke roughly against the wall.

"I'm not an idiot Sasuke! Stop _fucking_ calling me that!" he almost yelled, tone frustrated and eyes piercing with a lot of pent up anger.

"I know you're angry, but it's not with me," Sasuke reminded easily while Naruto dropped his gaze in acknowledgement and released his hold in an apologetic way.

"Kyuubi made her do it," the blonde explained in a steadfast tone as he turned away to grabbed things scattered across the room that he deemed necessary to bring back with him – mostly clothes and the few things he felt nostalgic about.

"How do you know?"

"She said she'd wait by the car. My mom doesn't have a car or a license; it's Kyuubi."

Sasuke glanced toward the window where the street could be seen through the tree branches and his eyes scanned over the dark tint to every window, including the windshield. Kyuubi – the man who single handedly orchestrated Naruto's arrival into foster care at age nine – was sitting just outside his house, and he felt his blood boil with vengeance.

"Naruto just don't go. If you tell my mom you don't want to go back, they won't make you go. Just–"

"It's my mom Sasuke," the blonde interrupted before Sasuke could continue. He couldn't do that to his mom – not if he wanted to live with himself anyway. He was the reason his mother's entire life was so fucked up right now; it was too ungrateful, "Do you have any idea how much trouble that would cause her?"

Sasuke didn't respond because no, he didn't have any idea how much trouble that would cause his mom. He had an idea but he always assumed the picture in his head of Naruto's other life was much nicer than reality. There was no way to really imagine it without seeing it; especially since Naruto _never_ talked about it.

But it sure scared the hell out of him.

He was so lost in thought he didn't realize Naruto had grabbed him by the front of his shirt until he was shoved back against the wall.

"Don't let _anyone_ see us together outside of school – _ever_."

His tone was almost threatening and the finality in his voice was almost alarming. It was like a switch was flipped and they were back to that old thing – the one Sasuke _didn't_ miss, and he desperately wanted to backpedal a couple months.

Naruto left and Sasuke didn't follow after him because he was pissed off and highly frustrated and too stung to give a fuck. This fucking sucked!

It always returned to this.

oOo

Naruto wasn't surprised to see Kyuubi at the wheel and he shot his mom a swift look of betrayal; she avoided looking up from the pavement and he tried to remind himself that it was the drugs that made her do the things she did – he had to forgive her because she was only forced to do them to raise him.

Plus, Kyuubi was just as capable of threatening his mother into doing whatever he wanted just like he did with Naruto. This was probably the more ideal situation; the one where his mother _didn't_ cooperate and help Kyuubi get Naruto back, probably ended with both of them dead.

The second he got into the car, Kidomaru grabbed him and threw him over his lap as they switched seats so he was blocked off from his mother.

"What the hell!" he yelled as he hit the man in the shoulder solidly in an attempt to make him stop. But his wrists were grabbed and yanked roughly to stop him from moving so much.

Kushina got in the car and they didn't drive ten minutes before she was quickly and forcefully dropped off at a corner where another familiar man who Naruto didn't know the name of grabbed her impatiently by the shoulder to redirect her roughly.

Kyuubi drove off and Kidomaru struggled to hold Naruto still as he fought to get out of the car to do _something_ for his mom and he was close to getting free but quit fighting when they passed thirty miles per hour because he knew it was pointless. What was he going to do, jump out of a moving vehicle into oncoming traffic? And then what? It was a futile thing to waste his energy on – he needed to step back and take a different approach if he didn't want to get killed or have his ass kicked.

Speaking of which, if he remembered correctly, he got Kyuubi into quite a close call just over a year ago – not to mention that even _with_ how well they seemed to clear out before the cops got there, there was still a lot of things left behind that had been confiscated. He lost a good amount of money that night; even though his mom was the one who took the fall for all of it.

And Kyuubi was probably still really pissed off. He was probably getting his ass kicked no matter how much he did or didn't fight back.

So he was completely on guard the entire walk up to the apartment and he felt like hesitating before entering but he knew that'd get him hit too.

"Guess who's mom is spending the night in county jail."

Naruto's eyes shifted toward Kyuubi's quickly before his eyes scanned the room swiftly. He noticed Zabuza wasn't here which absolutely meant Kyuubi was planning on kicking the crap out of him. Somehow, his ass got kicked a lot less when Zabuza was present.

He turned and reached for the door quickly, but it was shoved closed before he could pull it open far enough to slip through and he was yanked away from it as the deadbolts were refastened. His arms were yanked roughly behind his back and the grasp on each of his wrists tightened as he attempted to jerk free and then Kyuubi's fist was in his stomach and he curled forward, choking for air as it was knocked out of his lungs.

Yep, he'd called it.

It rained down and it felt endless and Naruto _prayed_ for an end soon; but before it came, there was a moment of cease and Naruto felt fingers lace through his hair near the back of his head before the hand yanked back, forcing his downcast gaze up to Kyuubi's.

"You deserve this, you know you do."

He didn't – only Kyuubi believed that and he would have said so if he was able to speak; but he couldn't talk with the way the air had escaped his lungs from when Kyuubi hit him in the stomach or chest. He did, however, manage to spit a bit of the blood in his mouth right in his face with a nasty little grin and that just about got his point across.

Good thing he was so healthy from a year of living with the Uchiha's because Kyuubi was pissed.

But at least the red haired man left his face and neck alone for the most part. Kyuubi was an asshole and habitually demonic and a million other horrible things that Naruto didn't have the patience to list. But he wasn't stupid, as much as Naruto wanted to believe that he was, and he knew to stay away from the areas that Naruto couldn't hide from public: if he wanted to stay out of prison that is – especially now that he was going to this private school.

Sure, he got smacked or backhanded in the face plenty – like when he received that freely bleeding cut on the inside of his mouth; but Kyuubi rarely met his face with a fist.

Although he doubted, even if Kyuubi broke his nose, that he'd get social services called on him – not until he got to that school of his. People around here didn't really seem to care about kids wandering the streets, broken and bruised, after around thirteen. At least that's when Naruto remembered significantly noticing how much less people seemed to notice. And even _with_ his new school, he could very easily blame a multitude of things for the incident; he was pretty persuasive and years of watching Kyuubi taught him this or that about lying.

After an undeterminable amount of time that was probably much shorter than it felt, his arms were released and his knees hit the floor before he could even think about catching his weight on his unsteady legs.

But he didn't hesitate to pull himself to his feet, and he really didn't care to hear what Kyuubi was saying about the reason his mother was being arrested. His adrenalin was fading and quickly, so he choked out as much hatred as he could into his departing 'fuck off' before stumbling toward the hallway and disappearing around the corner toward his room.

He knew Kyuubi wouldn't follow. He'd already made his point and he wouldn't bother Naruto for the next couple days – at least not if he didn't see him.

With a sense of necessity, he cracked the window open before letting himself lie down. He barely made it to his mattress and he had to lie still for a long moment before building up the determination to roll over onto his side so he could grab his phone out of his back pocket.

The movement left him aching and winded and he searched through his phone with wavering concentration.

He skimmed past Gaara's name in his contacts list before pausing and scrolling back up. That's right – Gaara was the person he needed.

He opened a new text and typed with slow, clumsy fingers. Everything felt more difficult than normal but it's not like he'd been expecting anything different.

It wasn't even minutes before he heard his window slide the rest of the way open as Gaara climbed through, eyes anxious and uneasy. Naruto glanced up at him, unable to really sit up independently; his muscles became incredibly stiff in the span of the past several minutes and the motion of just attempting nearly knocked the wind from him.

"What happened? Why are you here?" Gaara whispered harshly as he made his way toward the bed. Naruto vaguely noticed Kankuro standing just outside, fingers wrapped around the bars blocking off the window. He couldn't fit through so he waited there.

"Kyuubi, ah–_ow_," the blonde breathed in unease when Gaara lifted his shirt and lightly touched the bones lining his ribcage to check for serious injury.

"Gaara, we should really do something about this. Isn't there someone you can call?" Kankuro interjected softly as his eyes raked the visible parts of skin on his arms and the small bit of his stomach, analyzing how dark the bruises littering his body were becoming already.

"And where did that get us before?" Gaara reminded as he snaked an arm behind Naruto's neck and helped pull him up until he was sitting. Naruto attempted to bite back the yell struggling to escape his lips, but only managed to strangle it down to a choked groan that wouldn't alert Kyuubi to the presence of company or any suspicious activity.

"I'm fi – uhn."

He attempted to reassure Kankuro but his voice was cut off by a painful grunt as Gaara pulled him to his feet. His breathing quickened and he tried to focus on steadying himself as Gaara helped him across the room.

Getting through the window had been the most challenging and it had ended with him halfway unconscious as Gaara dragged him out through the windowpane, Kankuro helping lift him through.

The walk to Gaara's consisted of some walking but mostly dragging and he couldn't really come to terms with how dizzy he was and it wasn't until he was lying down on the couch – he didn't even remember getting that far – when he was able to grasp some sort of control over his wavering vision. He needed to sleep.

But he couldn't – not yet.

"Temari, could you call my school? Please? They're hard-asses at private school," he asked in a desperately apologetic tone. Temari reached for the phone without hesitation, "I'm sorry–" he breathed before Gaara cut him off with the same look he always gave Naruto whenever he apologized; he couldn't help it – he felt sorry for being such an inconvenience. He just did. He'd never be able to change that.

His eyes shifted to the backrest of the couch and he avoided Gaara's eyes with dedication. Gaara could tell he was drowning in self-loathing and it was obvious he hated having to ask for help and Gaara wished he wouldn't feel that way about it. Naruto helped him in ways that were completely un-repayable; his small, unconventional family would have gone to shit without Naruto – Gaara was close to destroying all their lives at one point.

And then there was that moment where Naruto flipped his ideals and it was a little startling how quickly Naruto could make a person believe in a cause.

So it was completely without question that he would respond to Naruto's text; no hesitation.

Because Naruto was a big part of _his_ cause and there was little he wouldn't do for him.

oOo

Naruto didn't go to school the day his mom picked him up – he didn't come the day after or yesterday either. People asked them where he was and he and Sakura shot each other uncomfortable looks before mumbling something along the lines of 'he's sick'. But it was Friday and Naruto was here and Sasuke was suspicious.

"Woh, Naruto! You're wearing the blazer! It makes your hair look even blonder!" Ino complimented as he sat down gingerly at the table.

Sasuke couldn't help but notice how good Naruto looked in it, but even if he thought so, he knew Naruto wouldn't agree because Naruto looked very professional in that blazer and professional wasn't exactly his forte. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"I've never seen you even _touch_ your blazer," Sakura commented as she stared at him questionably.

"God, is it that big of a deal?" he snapped, the irritation clear in his tone.

_Yes_, it was a big deal. Sasuke thought so anyway – but he wouldn't say it here, where everyone was watching.

"Naruto is perfectly free to wear a blazer just as each of you are. I don't understand why this is so spectacular," Sasuke commented lowly while Naruto shot him an incredulous 'thank you' in agreement to persuade any wavering judgments.

But he shot Naruto a soft glare at their civility with each other to remind him that he was still mad and that he shouldn't get comfortable because they _were_ going to talk about it.

And they did – by Naruto's deserted locker fifteen minutes later; about six minutes before the block was going to end and their next class would begin.

"So how are you doing?" Sasuke interrogated facetiously before he gently but firmly pushed him in the chest up against a wall of lockers.

Naruto grunted from the force of it – even though he usually wouldn't have; it was enough to prove any theory Sasuke was trying out on how injured he was.

"I'm pretty sore, asshole," the blonde shot back through the strain it took to breathe by the way Sasuke was pressing against his bruised chest cavity.

But he relented soon and he was pulling him back up straight by the front of his blazer and Naruto shook him off with a frustrated edge.

"You need to let me take care of this," he continued while Sasuke stared back impassively because he heard all this before, "I'm really almost there."

"Almost like the _last_ time you were almost done dealing with it your way?" Sasuke accused swiftly.

"Yeah – almost like that," Naruto bit back in a tone that reminded Sasuke how little he appreciated the sarcasm.

"How long before you were dealing drugs again?"

Naruto stared at him oddly for a second, eyebrows furrowed as he put himself on guard, because there was no way Sasuke could know anything about that. He was bluffing. Naruto wasn't buying it.

"I'm not an idiot dobe – it's easy to tell when you're selling drugs. When you're in foster care, you're phone's usually somewhere in your bag on silent; but now you never let it go. And that's not all that gives it away."

Naruto's gaze dropped and he shook his head incredulously.

"Asshole," he breathed forlornly – sometimes Sasuke was cold as hell.

"I'm not angry with you. I'm just angry," Sasuke clarified before he shoved him into his locker one last time before taking off toward his next class.

Naruto bit back a groan and his gaze dropped to the concrete of the pathway beneath his feet because he couldn't look at Sasuke.

They always took everything out on each other – it was just how they dealt with badly directed anger or frustration; and even though Sasuke got angry and frustrated a whole lot less than Naruto, it still happened.

Sasuke would come around with his attempt at an apology when he was ready.

Plus, Naruto maybe preferred Sasuke spend the remainder of his angry-time alone after their initial arguments; Sasuke was as rough as Naruto was when he was ticked off. And right now, he couldn't take much more of it.

But more important than their dispute, Naruto couldn't deny that Sasuke made a pressing argument; it was true – he was dealing drugs for Kyuubi again. Not quite as many and definitely not at school anymore: but that was just additional information that honestly didn't matter because dealing was dealing and yeah, he was doing it.

Their argument left him frustrated and badly stung and he wished he could just forget about it. But he couldn't, because it was Sasuke, and Sasuke had a way of latching onto his cognitive and never letting go.

And that was about the best he felt through the evening and following weekend and by Monday morning, he felt like he had the energy to do the bare minimum and little more.

Kiba asked if he felt ok but he brushed it off easily with a quick 'late night, regretting it now' and Kiba bought it easily – there was no one who _couldn't_ empathize with that; it was a complete get-out-of-jail-free card.

And for a while, that worked, and he got to keep to himself for the most part, but he was still honestly exhausted and by lunch, he wished he and Sasuke were on speaking terms just so he could have something to think about to get him through the last half of the day.

"You guys!"

Almost every set of eyes glanced up toward the hallway at the sound of Ino's voice and she approached the table quickly, shoving herself between Sakura and Sasuke.

"You guys," she repeated, palms pressed against the surface of the table before her, "What are you doing this weekend?"

"I was _hoping_ nothing," Sasuke admitted in an aggravated tone.

"My parents are out of town."

That was all she needed to say to get the point across.

"Party! I'm there!" Kiba confirmed while Ino mumbled something along the lines of 'You'd better _all_ be there', before Kiba turned toward his blonde haired companion, "Naruto–"

"Naruto! You _have_ to come!" Ino interrupted, earning Naruto's unsure gaze.

"Ok," he caved easily with a shrug – he was too tired to act more excited about it.

"Naruto you might just fit in – I heard there were going to be a lot of drugs and alcohol at this one," Neji began in a smug tone that earned an inquiring glare from Ino who looked as if she might be wondering what golden soul was spreading that around. Her parents would hate knowing what would be going on at her house this weekend and that made it twice as awesome.

Naruto just glanced away and shook his head as he held his tongue because he was growing tired of rising to defend himself; especially now – he just didn't have the energy to deal with Neji.

To Sasuke it was strange to watch Naruto give up – even on something small like an argument with Neji; it just showed how tired he was and how preoccupied by another thing his mind could become.

Not to mention, he probably felt completely alone. Sasuke hadn't exactly offered his condolence and clearly things were as horrible as ever at his mother's apartment.

"Neji, _shut the hell up!_" Kiba defended in an irritated tone before turning toward Naruto, "I got you're back when you're tired," he continued as he addressed his blonde haired companion, "You were probably too tired to give a shit, but Neji was being an ass."

Naruto smiled and it was genuine and it was only second before he was laughing and Kiba was joining in and Sasuke marveled at how Naruto was capable of cherishing every single moment he could; he'd never pass up a minute to be happy – Naruto took whatever he could get.

oOo

It was Saturday night and Naruto was trying to finish up before it got too late. He was supposed to be there half an hour ago but Kyuubi was being an ass.

His phone kept going off but he let it vibrate in his pocket; he wanted everything to be just ordinary.

Kyuubi stood, he lit a cigarette, and remained where he was for a moment as he inhaled deeply before slipping his lighter back into his pocket.

"Clean up when you're done," the man instructed as he headed down the hall for his mother's room. Naruto dropped his gaze to the table as the man disappeared down the hall, and the moment he did, Naruto swiped a small amount of powder set aside into a tiny zip-lock bag probably more out of habit than anything.

He cleaned up quickly before hurrying away to his room. He grabbed for the set of books that would usually block the first shelf on the bottom row but he froze when he saw the section he used as his bookcase empty and he remembered instantly that the stash of coke was in the bat-house in the neighbor's backyard at the Uchiha's.

How could he have possibly forgotten about that? It _was_ over a year ago – but still.

And then he saw the Naloxone that he set down there after grabbing everything he needed to stay with the Uchihas when he left last time. He picked it up with nimble fingers and stared at it for a moment.

He should keep it on him; especially while he was living with his mom.

So he slipped it in his pocket and he hurried to finish whatever else he needed before leaving for the night.

And when he was finally finished, he shut the door behind him and flipped the top lock over but didn't bother with the second two when his phone started to vibrate and he realized it was ok to actually stop ignoring it now.

"Hello?" he answered before listening for a moment as he turned to head for the exit that would take him to the street, "I'm coming! Really! I just left. I'm – waiting for the bus."

It wasn't a lie – he just wasn't actually at the bus stop yet; he could see it at the end of the street though so that counted for something, right?

"Well not everyone's parents own a Mercedes dealership – _no!_ Don't come pick me up! I'll be there in twenty minutes."

It took about that long for the bus to arrive and another fifteen minutes before he actually got there; but he was there and Kiba was thrilled to see him arrive.

There were a _lot_ of people here and Neji was right – there were drugs too; he could smell the weed wafting in from the backyard from the open sliding glass door and he only assumed people were doing coke by the compilation of blunt wrap straws and the small piece of cardboard that looked recently ripped free from a cereal box of some sort lying on one section of the bar counter.

Or maybe he was over-analyzing.

Either way, he knew rich kids got the best weed and he reigned in the urge to investigate for a source.

He found his group of friends easily by the noise level – not to mention Sakura's bright head of pink hair.

Sasuke was here and all it took was one complicated glance that lasted just a fraction of a moment to establish a mutual understanding that Sasuke was still mad, and Naruto stuck to Kiba's side instead.

People noticed their sudden distance but it wasn't really anyone else's business so no one mentioned anything; plus, they weren't being nasty to each other – so no one could say they were involving anyone else.

Still, Naruto hated it. Sasuke didn't get angry like this with him much, but when he did – he held on to it long enough to make up for it.

Naruto was the opposite; he lost his cool a lot – but he didn't hold on to things like Sasuke did. He wasn't quite filled with the same sort of vendetta his brunette companion was.

At least not about the same types of things…

Some several hours later, he was following Kiba somewhere along the side of the house; there were even people littering the areas here, where there was very little light and no shelter from the crisp evening air. A lot of people were smoking out here and Naruto wanted to ask someone for a cigarette; especially since he'd had a few drinks.

"Damn it, Kiba," the blonde swore to himself when he disappeared around the corner a good distance in front of him.

He went to quicken his pace, but a hand around his wrist yanked him back and another pushed him up against the wall of the house behind him.

"Damn it _Sasuke!_"

"You want to know what's wrong with you? You want to know what my biggest problem with you is?" Naruto just stared back at him but didn't dare interrupt or respond, "You have trust issues," Sasuke accused in a steady tone while Naruto's eyebrows furrowed just slightly, "And that just sucks."

Blue eyes dropped in some sort of apology – it was that subtle way Naruto conveyed his shame. He just let Sasuke get it out.

"It sucks because I can't do anything to help you with that; and even if I _could_ – you wouldn't let me, because you have this complex about doing everything on your own, and maybe that's just because you're resourceful and independent by nature, but it's still cold as shit that you don't talk to me about things you think I need censorship from."

Naruto didn't look up, probably because it was true, and Sasuke curled his fingers into angry fists in an attempt to ease his frustration.

"Even now! You're pushing me away!"

"Come on," Naruto breathed as he leaned back against the wall behind him, gaze dropping further away, "Just _try_ and empathize with where I'm coming from."

"I _can't_ because I have no idea where that is!"

"Sasuke–"

But Sasuke was gone before he could continue and Naruto was left feeling worse than ever about him and Sasuke. Maybe he _was_ going about it wrong.

But then he thought of Kyuubi and all the things he took advantage of and all the horrible things he had no problem doing all the time and he decided that even if Sasuke hated his guts, he wouldn't expose him to someone like that – Kyuubi was sharp; he would pick up on Sasuke's importance to him immediately. He had to keep the two things completely separate from each other and that sometimes required a little distance.

And Sasuke definitely didn't like it.

Kyuubi ruined _everything_ for him!

With a frustrated noise, he turned and hit the wall, but it just left his knuckles sore and he went back inside before anyone else grabbed the opportunity to tell him all the things he didn't want to hear.

He was looking for Kiba but not with all of his energy; he didn't mind his solitude while he cooled off from his and Sasuke's confrontation.

That was when he overheard the something intriguing about Hyuuga Neji that led him toward the upstairs bathroom to investigate a startling rumor.

"Neji?" he asked as he knocked on the door, ear pressed up against it in an attempt to listen. It was loud downstairs – he couldn't hear anything. But apparently he was belligerently drunk and locked behind this door.

Naruto did finally hear retching and Neji was still downright ignoring him; he shouldn't care but something was nagging at him not to ignore this and he didn't usually disregard the quiet thoughts at the back of his mind.

"Neji open up!" he yelled over the music as he shook the door handle roughly. If Neji was drunk enough to be throwing up, he shouldn't be in a locked bathroom alone, no matter how much Naruto wanted to dunk his arrogant little head into his own puke and flush the toilet.

But forgetting his vendetta to help an innocent person was just the type of person Naruto was. Wanting to dunk Neji's head in a toilet was normal – doing it was sinking to Neji's level. Unless he was provoked; that'd be completely different – and in that situation, depending on how he went about it, Naruto might not mind going through with it at all.

But until then, he wouldn't initiate a fight. And he'd give Neji the opportunity to act civil.

Very cluttered and difficult words to decipher floated through the door and only two really made sense and it was 'fuck' and 'off'.

"Ok," Naruto caved as he backed away from the door a step or two and stared down the hall, "We can do this one of two ways."

He took off down the hall and ignored the first door but stopped at the second. It had a baby blue doorknob that looked horribly out of place and he knew immediately it would be Ino's room. He let himself in without hesitation and looked immediately toward the top of her dresser and he couldn't help but smile at the crystal bowl sitting atop it, filled with bobby pins; like the universe set it there for him when he would be searching for it. He reached over and grabbed a hair pin quickly before returning to the bathroom door. By the time he returned, someone was standing before it, knocking loudly and yelling something unmanageably slurred by alcohol.

"Pick another stall, this one's out of order," Naruto advised warily as he watched the party-goer sway off toward the stairs to return to the main gathering of people in the house and Naruto returned his attention to Neji.

"Neji, I'm coming in whether you want me to or not," Naruto reminded to no response as he broke off the top part of the hairclip halfway while simultaneously yanking off the plastic ball covering the unbroken end, leaving the sharp, flat edge exposed. He popped it into his mouth near his molars and bit down roughly as he bent the tip carefully. He pulled it out and inspected it critically – that was about a forty-five degree angle; it would work.

He pulled out his keys and he smiled down at the tension wrench melded to his keyring and he grinded the newly bent end of the bobby pin against the strip of sandpaper glued to the handle until it was smooth to the touch and he thought fondly toward Suigetsu for a moment. Swiftly, he slipped the end of the wrench into the lock at the bottom, where it was wider, and he held it with his left thumb while he slid the long end of the bobby pin in next, bent side facing the right.

He jerked the bobby pin up and to the right in vigorous determination and in quick repetition while pushing counter clockwise with his thumb at the tension wrench. He could feel the pins setting and the wrench turned as the lock gave way and he pushed the door open with a victorious smirk.

But it faded quickly and he shut the door and locked it behind him with haste when his eyes landed on Neji, leaning against the wall nearest to the toilet, one arm limp at his side while the other draped across his stomach. There was a syringe on the floor. He made his way across the bathroom until he could kneel before him, gaze steadfast on his chest; he wasn't breathing.

"Shit," Naruto breathed as he fished desperately through his jacket pockets until he found that small, prepared syringe full of Naloxone that Kotetsu had given him. All he had to do was um…how'd Kotetsu word it? 'You just stab it – like an Epipen, ya know'.

Whatever, it wouldn't be the first time he injected a drug into another human being so he wasn't too nervous. He yanked the safety cap off the plunger before grabbing Neji's arm and pulling back his sleeve to stick the needle firmly through his skin near his shoulder before pressing down on the plunger.

It was weird watching from this perspective. He knew time felt a lot slower down where Neji was.

Neji was breathing and then awake in only several short moments and Naruto was already cleaning up the evidence of what he'd done to himself. His gaze was locked on the rubber band tied around his arm just above his elbow where it looked like he'd given several very poor attempts at finding a vein before pushing the drug regardless of not having found one. Naruto could see the liquid forming a bubble under his pale skin; the plunger was a small part away from the end of the syringe and he picked it up off the floor to examine it closer. He didn't even finish the hit and Naruto wondered just how much he _had_ managed to push.

But knowing that Neji had never touched drugs before – at least not the kind you inject; there was no way with how clean Neji's arms looked – he probably just hadn't expected it to be as sidelining as it was and hadn't been able to get the plunger to the end of the syringe. Naruto didn't blame him.

"Neji, what the hell?" he whispered more to himself than anything as he undid the band with a swift and practiced tug while grabbing a sheet of toilet paper and bundling it up before pressing it firmly against the small puncture wound. His arm was bruising badly already. He knew what Neji just attempted to mainline; he recognized it right away. That's why he knew to use the Naloxone.

Neji looked completely detached with reality. His dull eyes stared blankly at whatever was before them and he was still breathing rather slowly.

The back of his mind yelled forcefully at him and he reminded himself – don't be stupid; this was a different world, he could get in a shitload of trouble if he didn't handle this appropriately.

So he grabbed his phone and dialed 9-1-1 quickly.

"Don't," Neji warned in a very dangerous tone as he grabbed the phone from Naruto's hand as a voice over the receiver on the other end asked him what his emergency was.

Very swiftly it was crushed by the same hand and thrown into a far corner of the room in several pieces. Naruto stared at the area in the tub where his phone slid to a stop along with a bottle of shampoo previously balancing against the wall for a short moment and he replayed it once just to make sure that had really just happened.

"You just broke my phone!" he yelled in an anxious tone, "Damn it Neji!"

"I can't go to the hospital," the brunette explained in a very cluttered and difficult tone to decipher. Naruto would have taken several moments to process it if he hadn't already suspected exactly what Neji would say.

"That's the stupidest shit I've ever heard."

Neji refused to acknowledge him in disagreement.

"But I'd be a hypocrite if I made you go," he finished as he sat down before the boy on the floor, leaning against the cabinets next to the toilet and facing Neji who leaned against the opposite wall.

"Also you need to watch this," the blonde continued as he gestured toward his injection site, "You missed your vein and you could get an abscess."

"What's an abscess?" the brunette inquired anxiously.

"Hah," Naruto laughed ironically, "Look it up. You'll love it. It'll make you never want to miss a vein again…until you're a serious junkie and you're not trying to hit a vein because you want a longer trip instead of the rush– but at that point, you probably won't care what can and can't kill you anyway. Once you have a preference, you're probably not going back."

Fuck missing a vein, Naruto's tone was enough to make him never want to touch a needle ever again. Not to mention how fucking horrible he felt right now. (1)

Why was Naruto helping him? The very last thing Neji deserved was help from Naruto. If he was considering what he _deserved_, it was something like a good sucker punch right to the center of his face.

Naruto probably knew that, but the fact that he hadn't said it yet made Neji feel that much guiltier.

"I'm sorry for what I did when we first met," he apologized in a soft voice, distant eyes on the far wall behind Naruto.

Naruto stared at him a good amount taken aback. That was the last thing he expected.

"My dad died two years ago and I just feel so angry all the time," he whispered, eyes shifting further away, "I just feel trapped by…_something_ – I dunno."

Naruto gazed at him sympathetically.

"I'm sorry," he breathed in a genuinely empathetic tone, "It's tough to lose a parent."

"Well you should probably know. You're in foster care, aren't you? Your parents must be dead."

"My dad is, yeah," Naruto confirmed, earning a curious gaze that he wasn't so sure about. Naruto didn't judge Neji harshly for his scattered thoughts – he was recovering from a very terrible drug overdose, "Plus, foster care isn't _just_ for orphans…"

"What about your mom?"

"Don't you know all this already? Didn't you read my police file?" Naruto asked in a slightly irritated tone; he was still a little bitter about it. Oh, right, Neji remembered. Naruto's mom was a whore, "Besides, I'm not in foster care right now. I'm living with my mom."

The news earned a single raised eyebrow in surprise; Neji didn't know that – seems like something that might have come up at lunch at some point but apparently it hadn't. He wondered if any of their friends other than Sakura and Sasuke knew.

"I never read your file, I just overheard about your record and your mom while my uncle was on the phone," Neji admitted in an apologetic tone, "But he sounded empathetic with you and he never empathizes with convicted cases, which means he thinks you're not guilty. Were you guilty or not? Which is it?"

"No I was guilty. I did it," Naruto assured in a steadfast tone.

"What did you do?"

Naruto let out an ironic monosyllable form of a laugh and he felt irritated with how long he anguished over if anyone knew what he'd done when this whole time no one could have. If Neji wasn't acting so apologetic, with such piteous excuses, Naruto might have felt like decking him. But he also felt relieved because his personal information was still somewhat personal.

"I kind of want to shove your head in that toilet bowl and flush it," Naruto said with the most genuine smile Neji had probably ever received from him, "I was dealing crack out of my bedroom window," he supplied in a tone filled with a lot of bitterness; the words alone hit Neji at the pit of the stomach because he'd been expecting something stupid like stealing a pack of gum from a convenient store.

"It doesn't make sense – my uncle wouldn't empathize with someone like you," Neji breathed more to himself than anything. Naruto felt his anger spike at the backhanded insult because Neji still thought of him as the dirt beneath his feet, even subconsciously because he was pretty sure that jibe was unintentional and he wanted to _scream_ at him for it because Neji just naturally perceived Naruto as worthless because of his economic status.

"You want to know why your uncle thinks I should have been let off? Remember that 'tweaked out prostitute' I have for a mom? She _never_ got a choice – with work _or_ drugs, you don't know _anything_ about what it's like for someone in my mom's situation; so back off! Her boyfriend was gonna kill her if I didn't sell drugs for him. I was _fourteen_; I didn't know what I was doing! So I got caught…and now I have a record. But my mom's still alive so no, I don't regret it!"

Neji could only really stare at him in disbelief because he felt _really_ guilty. He had no idea and it left him speechless which was fine because Naruto wasn't finished.

"I'm sorry your dad died, but I bet anything he wouldn't have died wanting you to spend your life drowning in hatred. You need to let it go."

Naruto watched as he bowed his head and silent tears poured down his cheeks.

"You need to let _him_ go."

Neji choked on a sob and he grasped his shirt where his chest was as he cried with little control.

"If I had died, I could have seen my father again."

Naruto stilled, lips parting in shock as the words registered in his mind; had he just witnessed a suicide attempt?

"Neji I think you need to talk to someone," Naruto whispered in a soft tone, unsure of how to handle this. This was his first encounter with suicide – or would be, if that's what this was about.

"Like who?" Neji asked in a somewhat desperate tone that gave Naruto the vague impression that he wasn't quite willing to give up – was there a solution? The yearning for an answer rang clear in his tone and Naruto wondered if Neji had a friend in the world.

"Neji who do you _talk_ to?" he asked, earning a distressed noise from the brunette leaning against the wall before him.

"My dad," he cried, eyes screwing shut tightly as he clenched his jaw in an attempt to stem his tears. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows in sympathy because bit by bit, things were starting to come together and a clearer picture of the person beside him was materializing before him and he felt a little sorry for what he saw.

"You need an outlet," Naruto explained in a steadfast tone, "A dark thought should never be left alone in the back of your mind. It'll just ruin you – before you even know it."

"Naruto, if I talked to you, would you listen?" Neji asked in a desperate whisper, eyes locked on nothing in particular.

"I'd listen," he assured easily. Of course he would. Naruto was so fucking selfless and Neji wondered what he'd done to deserve someone like Naruto in his life at a moment like this.

Neji almost looked relieved and Naruto knew he felt weak from the mere thought of another human being actually empathizing with him at such a profound level – it must have been a weight off his shoulders.

"I can't stop blaming my uncle for my dad's death," Neji admitted in a soft, unsteady voice; he seemed unsure how to cope with it and there was a ring of guilt to his tone – his rationality knew it was wrong. But his heart was rebelling because his heart was angry and hurt and all this time had done nothing for him.

"What do you mean?" Naruto inquired uneasily; that was a pretty open ended confession – was Naruto delving into something far deeper than he'd anticipated?

"My cousin needed a ride home from speech therapy and my uncle asked my dad to pick her up. If he hadn't done that then they wouldn't have gotten into the accident that blinded Hinata and killed my father. I know it's not his fault but I can't stop hating him for it!"

Naruto stared at him for a long moment as he decided how to word his thoughts; this was kind of out of his league.

"I think there's something else that you're refusing to face and you don't need to tell me about it. You know what it is and your uncle does too; I guarantee it. You need to confront that first. Deal with the real cause of where your conviction toward him comes from. Then go from there."

Neji stared at him silently because, maybe he was right. He'd _always_ felt this bitter toward his uncle and maybe that was where the root of his anger was.

There was a long moment of silence before Neji shifted his gaze away in acknowledgement and Naruto watched him faithfully; eyes scanning for signs of respiratory distress.

"You feeling ok? Physically?" he asked as he watched Neji's features twist with nausea. Naruto opened his mouth to speak again but he was cut off by loud knocking at the door so he yelled, "Go away, I'm throwing up!" just in time to turn and watch, halfway sympathetically and another half amusingly, as Neji paid homage to the porcelain bowl before him, "Good timing, Neji," he whispered, earning an angry middle finger but nothing more as the brunette attempted to reign in his nausea.

Naruto sat with him loyally and he saved him _a lot_ of face – something he was realizing the gravitation to the closer the morning crept toward them. Naruto was saving his reputation, yes – but more alarmingly was the thing he couldn't reestablish no matter what anyone did. Naruto saved his _life_ and he could probably never repay him.

There was an hour or two near the end that felt like a few minutes and Neji wouldn't deny he didn't feel too bad by then and it was something like four-thirty in the morning when Naruto was helping him up and holding most of his weight as they went to exit the bathroom.

"Whe're we going?" the brunette mumbled as they headed for the stairs; there were still quite a few people here.

"A safe place to sober up – I got a hold of a friend for a ride," Naruto explained as they took the stairs slowly.

"How?"

"I stole your phone."

"Naruto?"

Naruto glanced up as they reached the landing of the staircase in time to see Kiba approach the pair and he looked a little disgusted and a big part confused.

"What–?"

"We're friends now," Naruto explained quickly with a smile and a friendly pat on Neji's chest with the arm supporting him.

"Yea."

"Yea, we worked things out – listen Neji here is beyond drunk and I'm gonna help him get to his ride. I'll catch you later Kiba, ok?"

Kiba shrugged and congratulated them on not hating each other as much tonight as they did this morning before taking off to bother someone else and they were able to escape to the front lawn without running into anyone else familiar enough with them to find the pair as odd as Kiba did.

"I really wasn't trying to kill myself. If I was, I wouldn't have done it here and I definitely wouldn't have failed – and I can't shut up."

"I believe you," Naruto assured honestly as a car pulled toward the house and stopped in front of the driveway: just about the only place on the street left open from cars, "My lips are sealed, seriously, I get it. Drugs do shit to your head."

Naruto only assumed Neji abused some amount of other drugs; probably pharmaceuticals – this was just his first experience with the injectable kind and there was a very big difference between the two that a lot of people underestimated.

Gaara got out of the back seat to help Naruto get Neji into the car and Naruto was a little taken aback by Gaara's swift acceptance of the long haired brunette. Usually he just stared at people.

Kankuro was at the wheel and Temari was in the passenger's seat and Naruto greeted them both with a grateful 'thanks' for picking them up as he got in and shut his door, Gaara following suit on the other side before they took off for Gaara's apartment complex.

It was a long night but Neji fell asleep almost the moment he hit the couch and Naruto knew it was safe to let him sleep by the lack of overdose symptoms – not to mention that it had been almost four hours since he'd used the naloxone; if Neji was going to have more complications, he would have had them by now.

"Should we smoke?" Gaara asked while Naruto lit up the screen of Neji's phone to check the time.

"_Please_, fuck, tonight was ridiculous."

Neither of them left Neji's side as the morning progressed, even though Naruto had insisted Gaara go back to bed; but some part of him was vaguely intrigued by Naruto's brunette companion.

So Gaara stayed there too and they spent the early hours of the dark part of the morning high as hell off the blunt Gaara rolled a little fatter than usual just for Naruto's tone.

Naruto knew Gaara rolled it well when he had resin sticking to his thumb and pointer finger after just a few hits; plus, he could taste the bitter residue on the brown spots it left on the inside of his lip where the blunt met his skin – he was _really_ high and he was glad he told Gaara he wanted to smoke it until it was done. He didn't want to put it out halfway and finish the rest later. He had a shitty night and he _wanted_ to be this high.

The television was on softly and there were a few minutes where he fell asleep resting against the wall but he didn't realize he was nodding off until he woke up and when he did, it was nearing eight AM and he stood from where he was sitting, Gaara's eyes following him inquisitively.

"I'll go grab some coffee. I'll be back in less than ten minutes."

It was kind of typical that his friend would come to just minutes after he left, and Gaara wasn't sure what to say; he wasn't exactly social – but some part of him was kind of glad because he was intrigued, for whatever reason, by the person lying on the couch, and a minute alone sounded exciting somehow.

He seemed a little unsure of where he was but Gaara reassured him that he was ok swiftly; Neji looked skeptical at first.

"Naruto will be back soon. He just left for coffee and the diner is literally down the street."

Naruto's name seemed to remind Neji where he was and he started to relax a little.

"Gaara," the redhead introduced as he held a hand out to the brunette who pushed himself up into a seated position, eyes landing on the television before him before he glanced over to take the extended hand and debated on whether or not to re-extend the greeting.

"Neji."

He felt like shit.

"So what spectacular thing did _you_ do to become one of those people Naruto drops everything for?"

"I ruined his reputation the day he started school where he's going now."

Gaara seemed to look unsurprised by his complete honesty and by his tone alone, he could already tell Neji was sorry for it.

"He does love the assholes," he affirmed softly.

"I told everyone about his record," Neji continued before furrowing his dark eyebrows, "Hopefully you already knew about that."

"I knew about it," Gaara confirmed easily, "I was involved. That wasn't long after we first met."

Neji just stared back at him because there was a lot about Naruto that the rest of his side of the world didn't know about and he wasn't even sure what to say.

Plus, Naruto's friend was a little intimidating.

The apartment door opened and shut as someone entered the hallway but Gaara kept his gaze locked on Neji.

"Gaara."

Gaara looked up to meet Naruto's gaze and he inquired with his eyes for him to continue with whatever he was addressing him for.

"Can we have a minute?"

Gaara nodded easily as he stood and left for the hallway with a grateful glance from his blonde haired companion who handed him a hot cup of coffee before he departed for his room.

When the living room was empty, Naruto set his gaze on Neji and Neji stared right back, pale eyes just _waiting_ for what he knew was coming.

"You realize you owe me for life, right?"

Neji bowed his head and he seemed to agree with how ashamed he looked.

"Anything. If I can do it, ask me, and I'll do it."

"Actually I do have something in mind," Naruto informed in a sobering tone – the kind that earned Neji's honed attention, "I need you to run a license plate number."

oOo

Naruto wasn't sure how long it would take Neji to actually run a license plate number – he probably had to do it secretly which required finding passwords and codes to certain protected databases; so Naruto didn't ask him about it when a few weeks passed and he heard nothing.

But that was ok. He was doing ok. Sort of.

Kyuubi bought him the new phone when he discovered the state of Naruto's and it was weird, but not as uncomfortable to accept as he might have imagined; Kyuubi wanted him selling as much as possible and a phone definitely helped that. It wasn't a nice gesture – it was a business investment.

Sasuke still wasn't talking to him and that sucked, but he did break into Haku's room last night to restore a little of his nostalgia – he needed his cell phone for the contacts; they had just about the same contacts list.

Not that he _desperately_ needed it; he'd filled in a few of the blanks already by replying to unknown numbers anyway and seeing who showed up. He had the same number, so people could still easily contact him, but it was rarely ideal because he'd at least like to know who he should be preparing to cross paths with. So one half of himself convinced the other that the need was great enough to take the item and he definitely wasn't regretting it.

Plus, then he could advertise – he could initiate a sale; he could remind people that he was still out there and that if they needed a fix, he had it.

The phone had been resting on Haku's nightstand, like he put it there when he got home from the mortuary that night he was shot – Zabuza must have placed it there when he'd inherited his effects.

It was strange how much of Haku remained inside the device in his hands. It was like holding on to a little piece of his soul for a little while longer.

Naruto glanced down at the phone where he stood against the brick wall of the building towering behind him, lips curved slightly as he flipped through the old pictures within it – most of them were of himself and Haku; and a second good majority consisted of the two of them with Gaara or Juugo and Suigetsu.

There were desperate footsteps padding toward him and he glanced up for a portion of a moment in recognition before dropping his gaze once more and the two greeted with a quick grasp between their hands as they exchanged product and cash.

There was that distinct _whoop-whoop_ as tires screeched while a cop turned around in the middle of the street near the end of the block and blue and red lights lit up the street while Naruto felt a hand in his grab the cash back before they could separate and despairing footsteps took off down the street.

"_Fuck_ no!" the blonde yelled as he took off after the man who both stole from him and helped get him caught. Somehow he couldn't let the former go, and it was predominant in his mind while somewhere at the back of his cognition, he wondered if he'd be in juvie before the end of the night.

He chased the thief through one alley taken to dodge the cop for as long as that would last, and a second taken in an attempt to shake the blonde, but Naruto didn't smoke crack habitually and he caught up before he could get halfway through the second alley, tackling him roughly to the paved ground and punching him in the face for thinking he'd get away with stealing from him.

He couldn't let anyone take anything from him – not one dime; it would land in his mother's lap otherwise. Kyuubi would make her work _more_ and it would be his fault.

Getting hit in the face dazed the man enough to inhibit his struggling and Naruto yanked the two fives out of his hand and fished quickly through his pockets, before pulling out the man's wallet and extracting another twenty-two in ones and fives before standing and stepping back a few feet.

"Here," he offered, as he dropped the wallet and a second small plastic bag of drugs on his stomach, "You had enough for a twenty-rock. Have fun in jail tonight."

And with that he took off before the sirens got any closer.

But running from the police wasn't easy – especially on foot; the dark helped, but not much. He ran for all it was worth because he feared being caught more than most things, especially now that he already had a record.

He sprinted through an alley and saw the wood fence blocking his path too late; oh, right – this alley turned where this fence stood. It didn't go all the way through to the street like the one he meant to turn down. He turned to take the impact with his shoulder, and he almost yelled out in surprise when his momentum kept going right on through until he hit the ground on the other side and slid away a little while the fence swung shut behind him. He held his breath and, moments later, he heard footsteps and voices approach the fence before turning and heading down the alley where they'd assumed he continued on through.

Was this some sort of trap door? It was useful knowledge to own. It could come in handy next time he needed to disappear.

The footfall faded but he knew he couldn't stay here, because if K9 units weren't already here, they would be soon, and he didn't stand a chance once they were.

He stood up, back to the fence he came through and glanced around. There was the back door to a building on his left and a back door to the second building at his right, two dumpsters near each. Before him stood a tall, concrete wall that blocked his path to the street he wanted to cross.

He couldn't stay here but he definitely wasn't going back the way he came.

The dumpster to his right sat, top closed, in the corner between the building and the brick wall, and Naruto didn't doubt that he could figure out a way over that wall with his assets.

He climbed up on the dumpster and glanced up to see the ledge of a window less than feet from the concrete wall he needed to jump over and a row of bars protruding out a foot before it – and they were only _feet_ from him.

He jumped for it, and grabbed onto the bars with sturdy hands as he planted his feet firmly against the brick wall of the building for leverage as he leapt for the concrete wall.

He grabbed the edge with two hands; one slipped, but the other was sturdy and he repositioned himself as he reached up to grab on firmly with two hands.

He struggled for a moment to pull himself to the top because there was little to grasp on to, but he succeeded and moved to lower himself on the other side. He paused for a moment because even after he lowered himself so that he was hanging on with the tips of his fingers, it was still a good five or six foot drop.

But he let go with a small push away from the wall so he wouldn't collide with it when his knees bent to catch his weight because he had to _go go go!_ He had to get the fuck out of here.

So he turned left because he knew that alley took those cops right and he took off before he could be spotted.

It was somewhere near nine-thirty when he got home and Kyuubi didn't question him when he entered with the haste he did – neither of them acknowledged each other and he was just fine with that as he went straight for his room.

He couldn't calm down; he felt anxious and sitting down and staying still was just about impossible. He couldn't believe he got away – his sympathetic nervous system forced adrenalin through his body in waves so strong, it left his muscles shaking in disquiet from the tension of the unease.

It didn't _seem_ that terrifying when he thought about crossing paths with a cop until he was staring down the hood of a squad car. Seeing those distinct red and blue lights inspired the memory of his previous stay in juvenile hall to revisit him abruptly and he couldn't shake the fear he felt when he wondered if he'd get caught.

He'd run from the police twice before tonight – once he was caught and once he wasn't. He didn't like those odds when it was his life he was betting on and he was glad he got lucky because he was two years older and would be a dual-offender; they wouldn't go easy on him.

He definitely couldn't sleep, and after he finally calmed down enough to recline against his mattress, he just laid there wide awake, unable to even _touch_ sleep, or the idea of it as the hours plowed through the night and into the early morning.

He would regret all of this far more later this morning when he had to go to school.

And he knew he couldn't keep this up.

oOo

It's my birthday! Woo! Can you guess my age? Hehe just kidding. I hope everyone has an awesome Monday!


	9. Chapter 9: Open House

Shit's about to hit the fan!

(And there might be a small lemon hidden somewhere within this chapter ^^)

**Chapter Nine: Open House**

D minus. _Shit_.

Naruto glanced down at his paper a little distantly. It was really tough keeping up with his junior year of high school while he was living at his mother's. At his old school, a swiftly thrown together theory of the kind of crap he had time for would get him an A – _anything_ would get him an A. But it didn't work that way at the Academy. He had no place or time to actually study; plus he didn't have a computer at his mom's and most of his homework needed to be typed and printed off – and his grades were suffering _badly_.

Needless to say, he wasn't doing well and he wasn't _feeling_ well either; he was averaging somewhere between a fourth and a half of the amount of sleep he needed and it was catching up with him _fast_.

He needed to get Kyuubi out of his life and he was ready to do it.

He was just waiting for the right moment to come along.

A car pulled over near the sidewalk in front of the school where he was walking and he glanced toward it cautiously as he moved closer to the wall at the furthest part of the sidewalk from the street. The windows were tinted too dark to see inside – but he knew who it was.

The passenger's side window was rolled down and Kyuubi glared heatedly at him while Naruto backed the rest of the distance to the wall behind him until his back was pressed up against it.

"Get in the fucking car."

"No, I have to re-write a paper. I'm not doing this shit on school nights."

Kyuubi gave him that terrifying smile that practically screamed 'wrong answer' and Naruto darted back toward the school entrance but the person driving floored it in reverse, driving right up onto the sidewalk, just inches from the wall, and blocking his path.

But he jumped up on the trunk of the car and hopped over easily and it was only several short moments before he was back into the safety of his school; but he could see the occupants of the car getting out and spreading out across the exits around the campus and Naruto lost sight of each of them quickly, so he continued deeper into school grounds because he knew they wouldn't come inside.

Eventually he had to come out.

Ok, so he was already going to get beat for saying no and causing an issue, but he needed to calm down and think – he had to figure out a way out of here without getting caught because a beating tomorrow from something he earned today wouldn't even be half as bad as a beating tonight for something he did just now.

He passed the hallway to his locker and two hands reached out, one covering his mouth while the other wrapped around his chest to pull him into the deserted hall and out of sight from any remaining students or teachers wandering the corridors.

He tensed up horribly until his hand wrapped around the wrist of the hand covering his mouth and he realized the person behind him wasn't affiliated with the people surrounding the school grounds hunting him down.

"You were expecting someone else."

Yeah, Naruto _was_ expecting someone else.

Sasuke released his hold on the blonde in his arms and Naruto stumbled forward a few feet before turning to stare back at him, lips sealed because that's all he could do in Sasuke's presence anymore; stand still and shut up – everything he said was _wrong_ and Naruto wondered how long this stupid thing would last.

"You were expecting someone with intentions worse than mine," he continued to analyze while Naruto remained silent, no gesture available to confirm or deny the accusation, "Not that my intentions are bad."

Naruto didn't respond other than staring peculiarly at him with furrowed eyebrows and a good amount of betrayal.

"I'm sorry."

Blue eyes fell to avoid Sasuke's and across the hallway, Sasuke was doing the same thing; but he wouldn't have seen that with how far away his gaze was traveling.

"You sure took your time," the blonde accused in a low tone.

"I know," Sasuke acknowledged in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry."

Blue eyes lifted up hesitantly to meet Sasuke's and he could see the honesty in his features and there was a mutual understanding that Naruto accredited his expression of regret.

"I appreciate this Sasuke – really but I really have to g–"

"Who are you hiding from?"

The second the words left Sasuke's mouth, Naruto's lips were sealed and he knew there'd be no way to pry his tongue from the roof of his mouth – not when it came to _this_ type of thing.

Sasuke made a frustrated noise and Naruto looked ready to get yelled at again and he seemed disappointed enough that he might have been expecting a few more weeks of the cold shoulder Sasuke was giving him.

"Ok, sorry. I get it," the raven apologized quickly, "Can I help discretely somehow?"

Naruto's eyes caught a lick of fire in them for a moment but he brushed it away quickly by breaking his gaze with Sasuke as he shook his head in the negation.

"You just had an idea," Sasuke accused as he leaned to catch Naruto's avoidant gaze.

"No I didn't."

"You did and you hate it because I'm involved. Think of something better – make me look uninvolved; because sooner or later I have to leave too."

Blonde eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch and his lips parted as something dawned over his cognition and Sasuke could tell he was hit with something brilliant; brilliant enough to work.

"I have something; but I need a few hours."

"What for?"

"You can't act conspicuous in daylight! It doesn't work Sasuke."

"Because _you_ would know about stealth," Sasuke mocked in an irritated tone.

"I know enough!" Naruto defended quickly.

"So what do you have then?"

Naruto's lips split into a grin and he looked positively ready to cause some sort of damage that would probably require maintenance of some sort.

"Hey Sasuke, help me find the fuse box."

oOo

It was nearing six-thirty and there were probably no more than fifty students and staff members left on campus in various buildings: mainly the library and front office. It was lucky that it was winter and got dark quickly enough that people would still be here because they needed people – just a few; one or two would work.

Naruto stood before the fuse box and Sasuke shot him an incredulous look when he whipped out a pair of pliers from what really felt like nowhere.

"Where the hell–?"

"I jacked 'em from the gardener," Naruto explained as he evaluated which wire to snip with a wicked grin split across his lips.

"Don't cut the wire you idiot! Just flip a switch – that'll be enough," Sasuke chastised as he glanced toward the circuit board of switches, "See look, this one will just turn off all the pow–"

But before he could finish, all he heard was that gratifying type of _snip_ as the thick wire leading into the switch he was previously gesturing toward was cut in two and the power went out with a click and everything was suddenly a little louder and the streetlights a little brighter.

"You idiot."

"Come on Sasuke!"

It was only moments before the remaining students and staff members left on campus were flocking out of all the buildings in small crowds in a cloud of answerless questions and the pair moved away from the circuit board before someone decided to check there.

A good amount of students decided to leave before waiting to hear about when the power would return and that was when they seized their chance to leave – when more than one person was doing it at the same time.

The parking lot was pitch black and the pair hurried across the blacktop toward Sasuke's car. Naruto was invisible in his black slacks and black uniform blazer buttoned to the top to block the white shirt beneath.

Sasuke though – he was visible; just barely. He left his blazer in his bag for that reason.

He unlocked the car manually and reached in to disable the light over the backseat swiftly before unlocking the remaining three doors with a flip of the switch on the driver's side door.

After reaching to his right and pulling open the door to the seat behind the driver's side, he tossed his backpack inside and Naruto slipped in just before Sasuke shut the door behind him.

From wherever Kyuubi or one of his little rats was watching – and he knew they were watching; he could hear that expensive engine circling the block – it looked like Naruto was never there and Sasuke was just a person they weren't concerned with while on the hunt for someone else.

And it only worked because of how distant Naruto forced them to be and subconsciously Sasuke understood that; he just hated acknowledging it because he didn't want to admit that Naruto was right – that it wasn't safe for them to act friendly in public for a very legitimate reason.

They left the school parking lot without a single suspicious movement in their direction; not that they expected any different.

Naruto remained on the floor of the back seat until they were pulling into the driveway at Sasuke's house. He felt bad enough as it was; he didn't want to risk getting up prematurely and fucking Sasuke over any more than his affiliation alone already did.

"We're in the garage, dobe. You can get up."

Blue eyes lifted up to meet Sasuke's when he pulled open the door behind the driver's side but he didn't move yet and he let his gaze fall back down to his lap, his posture a little defeated.

"I should have just gone with him."

"What?"

"With Kyuubi. I should have just gone with him. All I did was put off the inevitable and I got you involved," the blonde explained further, downcast eyes avoiding Sasuke's diligently.

"What's done is done," Sasuke finalized as he pulled the door open as far as it would go before heading for the door to the house, "I'll go let my mom know you're staying for dinner."

Naruto pulled himself from the car and followed somewhat hesitantly; but he wiped away any trace of distress from his features before entering the home and he greeted the inhabitants warmly – especially Konohamaru, who missed him more profoundly than most of the rest of the household.

Naruto was kind of his haven.

Dinner came and went and Naruto being there felt so natural and it was a little weird to remember that he was probably going home soon.

They were still sitting around the dinner table when someone came knocking at the door and Naruto's gaze quickly shifted over to meet Sasuke's and they shared a brief glance of uncertainty.

"I'll get it," Naruto insisted as he stood from his chair quickly and hurried to the kitchen entryway before Mikoto could get there, "Really, and I promise I'll be polite," he added with a coy smile before Mikoto laughed a little and sat back down while he turned and headed down the hall toward the front door.

Slowly, he approached the heavy, wood door and he glanced through the knothole cautiously.

With furrowed eyebrows, he pulled back; it was someone he didn't recognize – he looked young, older than Naruto, but still young. He had blonde hair, not like Naruto's, it was long and his bangs covered one of his blue eyes.

What was Kyuubi doing? Who was this and why'd he send him?

He wished the Uchiha's weren't involved and it made the pit of his stomach heavy with a sick regret.

"Naruto?"

Naruto glanced back at Mikoto who was standing in the doorway now, features painted faintly with concern; he might have been acting a little bit suspicious by now and he hadn't really realized it.

"Are you going to open the door?"

He shot her a reassuring smile before reaching for the handle of the door and opening it far enough for both of them to get a good look at the young man on the doorstep.

"Oh perfect," the boy greeted with a smile directed straight at Naruto, "Just the person I was looking for."

The way he reached toward his back had Naruto reaching for the door and he managed to slam it shut just before the blonde outside managed to pull the trigger of the heavy, metal weapon in his young hands. He sunk a bullet into the heavy wood with a loud crack as the wood splintered and the reaction of the inhabitants inside was instantaneous.

Fugaku jumped up and grabbed Mikoto and Mikoto's hand grabbed the phone off the receiver on the wall somewhere along the way and she was probably placing the call to the police now. Car alarms wailed from the crack as the bullet broke the sound barrier and dogs around the neighborhood barked to raise an alarm.

Naruto didn't rejoin the family in the kitchen. He ran for the sliding glass door in the living room that led to the back yard and Sasuke followed as he called for him to wait and Mikoto screeched at Sasuke to come back, but he went after Naruto who threw open the door and he sprinted for the back fence without listening to a word Sasuke had to say, climbing up quickly and balancing across the ledge of the wood panel running across the back of the spiked edge. He grabbed onto the nearest tree for support and vanished among the foliage.

He climbed quickly, heading straight for the bat house closer to the top, and he was pretty sure Sasuke lost visual of him for long enough to lose him which was essentially good; he didn't want Sasuke getting caught up in this side of his life. He pulled himself up on the closest branch, feet dangling as he hooked his arms over the branch to hold himself as he slammed the side of his fist against the bottom panel of the house which slid off easily, falling to the ground beneath the tree as a backpack filled with a single bag of illegal drugs and a t-shirt fell in to his hands.

He dropped to the ground next and ran for the neighbor's back gate leading toward the street.

Once he was there, it was easy – he just needed the dark.

He flipped the metal latch and threw open the wood gate before disappearing into the shadows without a sound as the gate slowly eased back shut behind him.

The second Naruto hit the street, Kyuubi was there – like he anticipated exactly how he'd run. So he kept to the shadows as long as he could.

And when the man spotted him, he took to the next evasive maneuver and Kyuubi had to abandon the car when Naruto started weaving in and out of houses through the side-yards or small alleys in which a car wouldn't fit.

_Come on_, Naruto begged to himself as he baited Kyuubi closer. He needed to be closer! Closer to the place that he wanted to take Kyuubi: the place exactly between Sasuke's neighborhood and his.

The residential block eventually hit a main street and the alleyway's got wider and more accessible while the houses got smaller and more crammed together between run down shopping centers; somewhere along their chase down the street, a police officer saw the pair running and took off after them. They were probably supposed to be looking out for a blonde boy with blue eyes who would be running away from the area they were spotted near. So Naruto used the same tactics against them that he used to run from Kyuubi when Kyuubi chased him in a car. But they were much more organized and had better communication than Kyuubi and every time he climbed a fence or slipped through a backyard, another cop was waiting for them on the other side.

Still, he wouldn't give up. So he kept running and Kyuubi kept chasing.

Finally, the chain link fence surrounding his old middle school came into view and he furrowed his eyebrows in determination. He turned right swiftly into the alley at his side and disappeared behind a dumpster, eyes following Kyuubi as he continued further into the darkness of the deep, dead-ended alley. Naruto could see the grass field beyond the chain link fence and he felt a surge of nostalgia toward the earlier part of his childhood.

He stepped back into view and watched as Kyuubi searched the dark corners of the end of the alley. Sirens were growing loud and piercing from different directions and he knew time was up but it was all so perfect because he did it. He could have smiled.

"Hey!" he called, grabbing Kyuubi's attention instantly.

The street slowly flooded with flashing red and blue lights and Naruto smiled ironically before throwing the backpack slung over his shoulder toward Kyuubi roughly who caught it cautiously.

"You're so fucked," he whispered in a threatening tone that earned an odd and skeptical look from the man before him.

"Not my drugs in here," he reminded as he tossed it easily toward the closest dumpster, "Throwing it at me doesn't change the contents of that bag. You know very well who's going to get jail time for that backpack and I'll bet you even know how much," Kyuubi rationalized, lips widening in a smirk.

Naruto didn't reply. He didn't need to. Kyuubi didn't know about the compelling evidence against him lying mercilessly at the bottom of that backpack. But Kyuubi suspicious was never a good thing. Fear wasn't irrational – fear kept people smart. Confidence was a false sense of security and Kyuubi was currently blinded by it. And Naruto figured, why should he bother giving him insight when he could so easily take the opportunity to blindside him?

"I wonder what horrible things your mother's going to be forced to endure to support herself while you're locked up."

Naruto grinded his teeth to silence himself. Patience was a promising virtue; he didn't need to tip off Kyuubi – he didn't need Kyuubi to act cautious.

Kyuubi opened his lips to continue but Naruto didn't hear it. Something hit him from behind and he was put on the ground roughly as he was arrested and he attempted to protest, but the air was knocked from his lungs and it wasn't until they were halfway back to the sidewalk that he was able to even _try_ breathing again.

"Why the hell are you arresting _me_? I didn't do anything!"

"Then why were you running from us?"

"I wasn't running from you! I was running from _him!_" he explained as he nodded toward Kyuubi, who was in a set of his own handcuffs with several officers on each side of him, "He was _shooting_ at me!"

But the police report through the radio said that a blonde boy about this height shot at the family – so the officers weren't buying it.

"We can't confirm your un-involvement with the present information so you're staying in the cuffs. You don't have to get in the car yet though. We'll check back with the officers at the scene and try to figure something out."

Naruto was taken aback into silence and before he could figure out how to respond, a pair of EMTs arrived on scene to assess any injuries and he was too tired to go out of his way to harass the cops congregating at the sidewalk next to the squad cars parked there. He noticed one branch off toward his vehicle and he started tapping at the laptop mounted near the dashboard to his right before he began making calls – about what, Naruto didn't know. But hopefully it would get him out of these fucking handcuffs.

His eyes met Kyuubi's and he was a little pissed off to find that the man looked completely at ease. He almost looked amused, and Naruto felt his frustration spike. He wasn't supposed to be arrested too – it would ruin his credibility; so he couldn't tell the police about the drugs in the dumpster. This was fucking everything up!

So he broke eye contact with the man in the cop car and sat down where he was on the sidewalk where the alley met the street, legs crossed and wrists cuffed behind his back, palms up and hands resting against the concrete beneath him. His fingers intertwined a little with each other but he was lost in thought and wasn't paying much attention to it.

"You again!"

Naruto looked up, realization dawning over his features the second he glanced toward the EMT addressing him and he smiled in recognition.

"Remember us?" Kotetsu asked in a friendly tone while the pair squatted down to reach his eyelevel.

"Yeah," Naruto breathed as he stared at the pair before him in phase of awe, "You guys saved my life."

"No we brought you _back_ to life!"

"I still had a pulse!" the blonde accused as he called the man out on his cant.

"How would you know? You were unconscious."

"You never used CPR so _ha!_"

"He's good," Izumo admitted with a thumb pointed toward the blonde.

"So what'd we miss? What's the scoop? Who the fuck is that person in that cop car and why the hell are you involved? Are you in handcuffs?"

Naruto stared at Kotetsu strangely for a moment before thinking, what the hell? Why not?

"That's my mom's 'boyfriend'," he answered honestly.

"And you're arrested because…?"

"Because they can't confirm my innocence."

But just as he finished saying it, the officer previously making calls stepped out of his car and approached them swiftly.

"Turns out you're innocent. Those scars are unique," the man explained as he helped the teen to his feet before unlocking the cuffs around his wrists. He tried to ignore the last part but it was difficult to do, "Listen, I need to finish up on something in the car, but would you mind sticking around for a bit to answer some questions for us?"

"I'll stay," Naruto assured with a victorious sort of smirk as he shot Kyuubi a smug glare over the police man's shoulder.

Kyuubi didn't seem so much at ease anymore and he looked angrier than ever as he stared straight at Naruto; the subtlety of his threatening nature probably made him seem much more terrifying. But Naruto was used to it and Naruto was so fucking angry he just didn't give a shit. He wanted to take Kyuubi down no matter what.

The officer thanked him briefly before making his way back to his car and Naruto just stood there and stared right back at Kyuubi, features unfazed and a little challenging in a way.

"He doesn't look happy, does he?" Izumo mused as he glanced toward the squad car and then next at Naruto.

"No, he wants to kill me," Naruto explained easily, "But he won't get to, _heh_."

He broke his gaze with a complacent smirk before approaching the circle of cops with little confidence from minimal positive experience with law enforcement.

"He threw a bag away," he informed as he nodded toward Kyuubi. He knew Kyuubi couldn't hear what he was saying, but he'd get the gist.

"He did? In which dumpster?" the nearest officer asked as he glanced toward the alley.

"Yeah, a backpack. He threw it in that one, the green one."

He pointed toward the dumpster where Kyuubi had thrown the bag and a group of officers set off toward the marked location and he returned to where Izumo and Kotetsu were standing, watching with inquisitive eyes but quiet mouths.

"Watch," Naruto advised as the cops fished the backpack out quickly and brought it to the sidewalk where they could lay out the contents of the bag on the hood of the car.

An officer reached in and pulled out the shirt lying at the bottom and Kyuubi stared at it incredulously because he honestly hadn't been expecting the officer to pull out an item that could potentially incriminate him and he knew Naruto did that intentionally.

But the thing he pulled out next was what had the officers talking quickly with each other and communicating more over the radios near their shoulders.

It was not common for someone to walk around with that much coke – not to mention they were within eyesight of a middle school; each would be a felony on its own. It was starting to come together to the person in the squad car and Kyuubi was furious about the extent Naruto went through to put him in prison.

And Naruto stared back, smiling that shit-eating grin that practically told Kyuubi 'take _that'_.

Naruto planned to stick around as long as it took for the police to get around to questioning him and he didn't care if it took all night as they swept the alleyway for any further evidence they might have missed before.

"Naruto!"

Blue eyes glanced up in time to catch Sasuke's as hands grabbed him by his shoulders and Sasuke redirected him a little so he could get a better quick glance.

"You're ok?"

"Sasuke," the blonde breathed in some sort of disappointment before turning and glancing toward Kyuubi who was watching them with a strategically quiet sort of look that frightened Naruto just because he knew what Kyuubi was capable of.

With a firm hand grasping the shirt of Sasuke's uniform, he redirected them until they were out of direct eyesight of the red haired person in the cop car.

"Kyuubi just saw you," he finished when the raven shot him an inquiring gaze with furrowed eyebrows, "Damn it Sasuke!"

"He's going to prison, isn't he?"

"Let's hope the trial goes that well."

Yeah, Kyuubi was definitely going to prison; but Naruto still didn't like the idea of Kyuubi knowing what Sasuke looked like – not that he could put a name to Sasuke's face, but Kyuubi was perceptive enough to understand there was a relationship of some sort between the two of them by the concern Sasuke displayed.

Kyuubi could do impossible things with the connections he had. Just because he was going to prison, didn't mean Naruto felt safe. He could very easily orchestrate a number of things from behind bars.

Kyuubi was on trial for three days – his attorney fought a notable battle against the public defender; but the case was so solid. There was a zip lock bag _full_ of coke with his fingerprints all over it, wrapped in a shirt that belonged to him. There was no story that could explain those incriminating facts away.

Well, the _truth_ could explain it all away, but only Naruto knew that and Naruto's lips were tightly sealed by the smirk on his lips.

And when that judge read 'guilty' Naruto was there – in the back row of seats nearest to the door; and he was smiling like he tricked the devil.

The fury was present in Kyuubi's features as he stared straight at the blonde in the back of the room; Naruto shot him one last grin before getting up and exiting the courtroom – that simple act of expressing a freedom he had that Kyuubi didn't and wouldn't have for a few years at least.

He felt like he was walking on air and he was positive he hit cloud nine.

oOo

Nearly three months passed since Kyuubi was incarcerated – it was early may, a month and a half before the final semester of junior year would end. Naruto was surprised with how well his mom was keeping up with the methadone and staying away from the heroin; everything was so much easier when Kyuubi wasn't around, and Naruto really couldn't feel happier.

Kyuubi's 'friends' came to the general consensus that Zabuza took leadership in Kyuubi's absence and they had pretty much strictly moved to Zabuza's residence and didn't come around Naruto's so much anymore.

Although the fact that they left him alone completely, sort of made him uneasy; he got Kyuubi arrested and incarcerated – and he hadn't been jumped or shot at yet. It put him a little on edge, although he wasn't sure why. He should just be glad it was all over, right?

He should be, and he was; mostly because he was living with his mom and he was sort of finally pursuing Sasuke.

Well – more like Sasuke was pursuing _him_: fervently.

Actually that might have been the reason why he was shoved up against the back row of lockers in the empty gym locker room with Sasuke's lips sort of…attached to his.

The door opened and Sasuke pulled away quickly with the help of Naruto's hands pushing him away roughly and they stared at each other a bit elated with the anticipation to see who would round the corner.

Oh good, it was just Sakura – in the guys' locker room; absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

"_Hey!_ Stop _making out_ and get back to class!" she scolded in a quiet but stern tone as she approached the pair before her.

"How the _hell_ did she know?" Sasuke asked as he turned incriminated eyes on Naruto.

"I'm in class with her," he explained easily, no remorse or hesitation in his tone.

"_Dobe_," the brunette chastised as he moved to exit the locker room on Sakura's strong gesture of pointing toward the door, "I think you _like_ getting caught."

"No I just–!"

But he cut himself off with a soft laugh as he took off after Sasuke.

"You just like the risk," Sakura accused easily from directly behind him, "And Sasuke you're no better since you're both equally involved."

Both boys shot Sakura a look over their shoulders but didn't respond verbally because it was true. They were in some sort of undeclared, secret relationship and the thrill was exhilarating; even Sasuke wouldn't deny it.

Sakura knew; she was the only one – but of course she _knew_. She was connected to the two of them in a different way from the rest of the world and she was special to both of them, mainly because of their extensive history together.

Naruto was in the best place he could remember being since before his father died. And the thing he had with Sasuke – it was completely out of this world.

With one last glance at each other, they parted ways while Sasuke headed left toward his classroom and Naruto headed right with Sakura whispering something condemning at him that he tried really hard to pay attention to.

But all he could think about was the locker room three minutes ago and nothing Sakura said to him registered anywhere within his cognition.

oOo

Naruto was nervous. Tonight was open house at the school and his mother was pretty much forcing him to go. She was excited about seeing what he was doing in school – she wanted to meet his teachers. Everything was so different with Kyuubi out of the picture; it sort of blew Naruto away.

His bedroom door creaked open and he glanced up to see his mom standing in the doorway with a kind smile on her lips, dressed in a simple, black dress that made her hair look redder and her green eyes much brighter.

His mom really was beautiful.

"Naruto, telephone," his mother announced before the house phone came hurtling toward him and he caught it just before it smacked into his chest and the red haired woman left to finish getting ready.

"Hello?"

"_You need a phone_."

It was Gaara.

"I have one," he commented as he reached for his pocket to grab it.

"_Well then maybe you just need to answer it_," he compensated in a facetious tone while Naruto glanced toward his silenced device to see three missed calls.

"Sorry," he apologized sheepishly, "I didn't realize it was on silent."

"_Anyway that's not what I was calling about_," the redhead continued, "_I wanted to see what you and your mom were doing tonight_."

"Mom! Gaara's coming over tonight!" he yelled as he moved the receiver away from his mouth.

He heard her cheer something from the bedroom – it didn't matter what; they loved having Gaara over: Kushina especially. She just adored him. Maybe it was his red hair. Naruto didn't know.

"_I guess I'm coming over_."

"Yeah, come over. But come around nine. I have um…open house tonight."

He seemed a little embarrassed, and by the way Gaara laughed lowly on the other line in spite of him gave him every right.

"_Shut up_ Gaara! You made your point. I'll see you later."

He hung up and didn't give him a chance to respond and by the time he put the phone down on his bedside table, his mother was opening the door again and she looked ready to go.

"Gaara's coming at nine."

She smiled and nodded and Naruto was glad to see the bliss on her features – it came so far and few between.

"Are you ready?"

He nodded and stood up to join her in the hallway but she stopped him abruptly.

"No you're not!" she exclaimed as she placed a hand on one hip while pointing accusingly toward his neck, "You didn't put your tie on."

"Mom! Come on! The blazer's bad enough!"

"Naruto you're wearing it damn it!" Kushina yelled in a tone that was more encouraging and endearing than scolding.

"Well I don't even know how to tie one. And Dad's–"

But he stopped because it was still hard to add on the word dead to that sentence in certain situations; he assumed it would be for a good portion of his life.

"_Please_," Kushina breathed as she grabbed the tie hanging in his closet before approaching him and wrapping it around the back of his neck and tucking it under his collar, "As if your father knew anything about tying a tie," she joked softly with a gentle smile, hands fussing at the strip of material until it was fixed properly.

"People are gonna talk about us. About ninety-eight percent of them think they're better than me," he warned in a bitter tone, "We could just not go."

Soft hands cupped whiskered cheeks and Naruto looked up to meet his mother's affectionate gaze.

"You look just like your father."

He was probably blushing and he glanced away; his father was the person he idolized more than anyone – he couldn't have stopped the grin on his lips if he wanted to.

"But your personality is just like me!" she exclaimed proudly, splitting Naruto's grin into a full blown smile.

"_Hell_ yeah!"

"I want to see everything you're doing and hear all about what you're learning in school, ok? So don't leave anything out!"

He could only smile as his mom dragged him out of the house eagerly, talking away like she used to when he was a kid and him and his father would just listen.

Naruto was pretty good at getting a word in – his father wasn't; but he was ok with that. Plus, Naruto was a lot more like his mother than his father and he just knew how to navigate through her whirlwind conversations.

When they arrived on campus, Naruto could feel wary gazes following them and when people started talking lowly to each other anytime they passed, it was probably about them, but the confidence his mother held was so steady, he couldn't help but feel as proud as she looked – so he ignored it all as they went through his different classrooms and he showed her everything he was doing and he didn't leave anything out.

As the night progressed, they headed toward the cafeteria where the closest exit to the street was, and along the way they ran into the Uchiha's. Naruto felt mixed feelings about it. It felt like two words colliding and he suddenly wasn't sure which he should hone in on.

But they were greeted warmly and Mikoto didn't hesitate to mention how good things seemed.

The adults spent a few minutes catching up while Naruto and Sasuke shot coded looks back and forth; like they were communicating without much more than just a general expression.

"Listen, thank you for everything you've done for Naruto," Kushina began in an endearing tone and it was clear she was genuine.

"Really, it's nothing. He's a good kid," Fugaku assured while Naruto broke Sasuke's gaze to glance over at the people talking about him.

"Damn it," he mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck, cheeks lightly tinted with embarrassment; he rarely got complimented so it was sort of weird. Plus, he was standing right here…

"I forgot a book in my locker," Sasuke announced suddenly before grabbing Naruto's wrist and pulling him along, Sakura following closely behind, while the adults reminded them to come straight back here after grabbing it which they consented to airily and with hardly enough acknowledgement.

But they were gone around the closest corner to the nearest hallway and out of sight before there were any other demands they would be expected to adhere to.

"You forgot a book?" Naruto asked unconvinced, his tone somewhat interrogating, "You've never forgotten _anything_ before."

"Hey, dobe, you look nice."

"Shut up you piece of crap!"

But Sasuke just smiled because he could tell his approval mattered by Naruto's reaction alone; he didn't have a problem taking a compliment – he just had no idea how to respond to the way Sasuke made him feel: frustrated, confused, angry, invigorated.

Neither of them did; and it made both of them act _stupid_ most of the time.

"Did I forget to tell you?"

Both boys glanced up to stare inquisitively at Sakura and she smiled at the interest in both their eyes; the tone she carried had that effect.

"Student council his having a retreat over the weekend to celebrate the end of the year and all our hard work and your parents are coming as parent volunteers; I asked them to. And Konohamaru is spending the weekend with Udon because you're incompetent, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke ignored the last part when the insinuation dawned over him.

"Itachi's out of town on business," Sasuke realized as he shot Sakura a grateful look, "That's brilliant, Sakura," the raven complimented before turning his gaze toward Naruto, who probably missed the innuendo by the how impassive his features were, "Hey dobe, want to spend the weekend with me?"

But by the way he blushed now, it wasn't difficult to tell that he probably understood what Sasuke was getting at.

"N-no!"

"Yes you do," Sasuke assured with a wicked grin, "What's on your mind dobe? Why are you so red?" he teased, smirk widening, and earning a deeper blush than was probably comfortable for Naruto.

"Shut up, Sasuke," Naruto breathed as he glanced down the hall where another student was sifting through her locker, "Someone's going to overhear you."

"There's nothing to overhear," Sasuke stated in an amused tone, the smirk on his lips widening as Naruto backed into the wall of lockers behind him in an attempt to get as invisible as possible. He was so much more cautious about it than Sasuke, "I'm just trying to invite you over to my empty house where we'll be all alone all night; nothing conspicuous about that."

"Sasuke no–"

"But since you're so worried about it, we can go somewhere more private to talk about it."

"No, we should go back–" the blonde argued uselessly; but Sasuke was already dragging him to the small alley behind the brick building across the hallway. Sakura knew she shouldn't follow them – but it was useless to resist the urge for long.

By the time she was peeking around the corner, Naruto was pushed up against a wall, one hand on Sasuke's chest and Sasuke's hand wrapped around the wrist of the hand pressed against him – like Naruto was trying to push Sasuke away but Sasuke wasn't really letting him.

Not that Naruto was really trying that hard.

Sasuke was whispering into Naruto's ear, probably sinful things by the way Naruto blushed now, lips at an intimate distance to Naruto's tan, overheated skin. Sakura wished she could hear what he was saying; Naruto looked close to scandalized by the words rolling out of Sasuke's perfect, smirking lips, blue eyes staring straight ahead at nothing in particular as his cognition focused solely on the soft words at his ear, lips parted and jaw halfway slack – like he couldn't believe Sasuke was saying the things he was.

When Sasuke finished whatever it was he was whispering into Naruto's ear, he pulled back and took a few steps toward the corner Sakura was peeking around.

"So will you spend the weekend with me?" Sasuke asked with a coy smirk on his lips.

Naruto shot him one unsure look before a hand rose to cover his mouth and his eyes slipped shut as he clutched his fluttering chest in an attempt to slow his racing heart.

"Sasuke…" he breathed from behind the fingers over his mouth.

"Come on," the raven coaxed as he nodded toward the way they came, "Sakura found us already."

Blue eyes opened and shifted toward the girl and he almost seemed to plead for help with the way he looked at her. His gaze broke away and he pushed himself off the wall behind him, hands dropping to rest at his sides as he tried to focus on reigning in some sort of control over his blush; he knew it was bad by how deeply his face was burning.

To Sakura, he looked nervous, and she didn't blame him. She'd never been in a relationship like Sasuke and Naruto's; she'd never been in a relationship where she wanted to pursue what was on Sasuke's mind. She was pretty sure Naruto had never even kissed a person before Sasuke – it wasn't unusual for someone in his situation to possess the amount of anxiety he did.

He looked nervous, yes, but he also looked just as anxious and exhilarated as Sasuke; there was just a little more fear on Naruto's part.

"Wait," Sasuke requested as they detoured toward the hallway of lockers they'd abandoned minutes before, "If I don't bring something back, we'll seem suspicious."

They probably wouldn't have even if Sasuke forgot the book; by the time they returned, the adults seemed to have gotten comfortable with each other, and none of them really liked the way their parents hushed themselves as they returned, traces of laughter left behind but little more.

They had a vague feeling they might have been the topic of conversation just moments before interrupting.

"It's gotten late, huh?" Mikoto mentioned as she glanced toward a clock on the hallway wall.

"Naruto! It's nine-o-five!" Kushina exclaimed suddenly. By the tone of her voice and the urgent glance Naruto shot her, Sasuke guessed they must have forgotten something. Kushina turned and took off for the hallway that would take them to an exit and Naruto took off after her. Sasuke shook his head slightly, eyebrows furrowed a little – Naruto and his mom were a lot alike; especially in the tunnel vision aspect.

"Wait!" Mikoto called, yanking both to a halt before they could get much further away, "The parking lot is this way!" she explained as she pointed back over her shoulder, the opposite way they were going.

"We took the bus!" Naruto assured with a smile and a wave before they turned to continue toward the exit.

"Wait!" Mikoto called again, this time with a little more unease in her tone, "Well, we're leaving too. We could give you guys a ride."

Naruto glanced over at his mother and she smiled in gratitude.

"Thank you, that's very sweet but you don't have to–"

"Really! We wouldn't mind at all!"

Part of Naruto wanted his mother to deny twice, because then they'd take the bus and meet Gaara a little late, but it'd be ok in the end; they were already late so he would be pissed either way.

But she agreed to the ride and the way Sasuke quirked that one eyebrow for just one tiny fraction of a second when they pulled over at their complex was enough to prove to him that he'd of preferred _walking_ over this. None of them had seen his apartment before and each of them possessed the same, subtle concept about how rundown the neighborhood was, but Sasuke's very small expression was the only thing he could focus on.

He wanted so badly to be good enough for Sasuke.

"Thank you so much for the ride!" Kushina began with a wide smile from the front seat before exiting the car and heading toward the front door where a shady looking young man was waiting at the doorstep.

"Yeah! Thanks so much!" he acknowledged, the gratitude clear in his tone as he followed after his mother who was having a particularly affectionate time harassing the boy at the door.

Naruto snuck up behind his companion quickly while he was distracted by his mother and hopped onto his back before tossing a key toward his mom and locking his feet around his waist.

Gaara shifted to hold his balance but didn't throw him off, and Kushina popped the door open when the last lock flipped open with the key in her hand.

They turned and waved toward the car to let them know they were in and the Uchiha's waved back and when the front door closed behind them, the car felt very quiet in the aftermath; Naruto lived such a different life – but no one said anything because there was nothing _wrong_ with it. Living in a bad neighborhood didn't constitute bad parenting and Kushina clearly loved Naruto so they were ok.

But they were _so_ poor. And there was this overdeveloped urge to give them _anything_ and maybe that was why Naruto never let them see this much of this part of his life – because more than anything, he desired respect and recognition; and they all felt a whole bunch of pity.

But things were going well and no one could deny that they seemed to be doing just fine without all the help they wanted to give.

So no one said a thing. Because it was just different from what they were used to – and it definitely explained why Naruto was so resilient.

Plus, Sasuke couldn't help but let thinking about tomorrow consume most of his cognition and he focused with what little remained of it on not getting hard.

oOo

Had he expected Naruto to knock, or utilize any other traditional means of entering Sasuke's home?

He _had_, but not because Naruto fell into the category of traditional – he expected it because even most unusual people used the front door.

But Sasuke had been lying on his bed in his empty house when his bedroom window was tossed open and Naruto climbed through and he wasn't sure why he felt surprised.

"Dobe, breaking and entering is a felony, you know."

"How would you have heard me tapping on the front door from all the way up here in your second story bedroom with the door closed?" the blonde pointed out as he shot Sasuke an unamused glance. Actually, Naruto made a valid point and Sasuke shot him a smirk in return, "I didn't even try the front door," he continued to admit with half a shrug and a wry grin of his own.

"What if I'd been in the kitchen or the living room?" Sasuke theorized in an attempt to help him see the error in his logic.

"Then I absolutely would have taken advantage of the opportunity to scare you," Naruto assured easily, "All I'd need is a hat!"

He darted for Sasuke's dresser and pulled the second drawer open before yanking out a black beanie and pulling it over his condemning blonde locks.

"And I'd use my shirt to cover my face," he continued as he pulled it up over his whiskered cheeks, leaving only his eyes.

"I'd definitely still recognize you," Sasuke assured easily, "But even if I hadn't, I still wouldn't have been afraid of you. I'm confident I'd still kick your ass, whether I know it's you or not."

"Wanna bet!"

Sasuke didn't get much more time to prepare before there was a fist on its way toward his face and he only caught it moments before it wouldn't have hit the left side of his jaw and he used Naruto's momentum to bring him to the floor and pin his struggling form beneath him.

"See? Size matters dobe, I have at least fifteen pounds on you–"

"No way!" Naruto denied relentlessly as he struggled, somewhat aimlessly, with no reward to show of it. Sasuke was getting hard and it was sort of making _him_ hard, "I'm not bottoming! You're the one that wants to do it so bad, so you should let me top."

"But you want to do it bad too. I can feel it," Sasuke reminded as he shifted his weight down just a little to remind him just where he was sitting. Naruto bit his lip and arched a little, eyebrows furrowing at the fire it sent blazing through his overheated veins, "Just trust me dobe," he whispered as the tips of his fingers peeked under the hem of his shirt and snuck up his abdomen until warm hands reached his chest.

"_Ah_, Sas'ke–"

"I'll make you feel very good, I promise," he whispered as he leaned down to kiss along his jawline.

The noise that left Naruto's mouth went straight to Sasuke's head – and not the one on his shoulders; he pulled back a small distance to gaze at the person lying beneath him and Naruto avoided his gaze adamantly.

"That's dangerous," Sasuke whispered, earning a blush and a frustrated type of scowl that drove him a little crazier. Only Naruto could misunderstand in a situation as intimate as this.

"You're so perfect," he continued as he spread and grasped his fingers where his hands lay pressed against Naruto's toned chest.

"Not like you," the blonde verified with a pink tint to his cheeks as he glanced further away in embarrassment, "I–"

He lifted his hand to rub at his whiskered cheek with the back of his hand and Sasuke could _feel_ his self-doubt; the subject of his scars had always been the most precarious subject to approach – Naruto never said what happened. He just showed up in foster care for the first time when the wounds were fresh and it always remained the one thing he couldn't feel self-assured about and that only made it blatant because if Naruto was anything, he was assertively confident in himself.

"Trust me, you have nothing to be insecure about," Sasuke assured easily as his hands found his hairline and he laced his fingers through blonde locks and grasped in a way that felt needy and he yearned for the boy beneath him forcefully, "There's no one in the world like you – no one that even comes close."

He closed the distance between them to silence any protest Naruto might have had to offer and Naruto reached up to grasp desperately at the front of his shirt and Sasuke wasn't complaining about the way he pulled him closer either.

It wasn't long before they were pulling each other out of their clothes and even less time before Naruto was beneath him and Sasuke was positioned between his legs.

It hurt at first – a lot; and, to Naruto, it didn't feel like it would ever get better.

But when it did, it was out of this world and he was wrapping his legs around Sasuke's waist instead of clenching his knees in an attempt to slow him down and he pulled him closer, toes curled, as Sasuke went deeper and he really had no way to describe what there was between him and Sasuke.

It was completely different from anything else he could remember having before.

"_Fuck_, Naruto, I'm gonna cum."

"Then do it."

Sasuke slowed for a moment and shot the blonde a coy smirk.

"Not until you do," he challenged as he leaned forward to suck on the pulse in his neck.

"Everything's a contest," Naruto commented dryly; but any additional coherent thought that might have been left on his mind escaped him completely when Sasuke wrapped a hand around his manhood and continued with his previous pace.

"No! Sasuke, don't! I'll–!"

That was it; he couldn't take any more. He came and Sasuke followed less than seconds after – he felt heavy and every cell of his body swelled with something he could only really assume was the afterglow because he didn't even care how disgusting he and Sasuke were as the taller pulled out and rolled off him to lie next to him. He could lie there until the end of the world as long as Sasuke stayed too; nothing else really mattered anymore, at least not within the moment inside his head.

He glanced toward Sasuke and it was strange to think about the way he felt; he'd heard people describe a swell of affection like stopping the world. But Sasuke didn't do that to him; Sasuke made his world spin and Sasuke made his life move because Sasuke made him feel alive.

And he wished there were words that could describe it.

"Sasuke–" he whispered before cutting himself off. He suddenly felt unsure; maybe it wasn't worth going into.

But Sasuke gazed toward him patiently and he looked ready to sit and wait for as long as it would take to convince him to continue.

He shifted his gaze away uncertainly.

"The way I feel…I mean – the things I say–"

Sasuke didn't interrupt because he didn't want to put words in Naruto's mouth; he wanted to hear his best attempt at what was on his mind.

"I just – I don't know how to say what I mean."

Sasuke smiled and he felt his chest flutter and it was almost uncomfortable because he wanted Naruto so bad even though he was _right here_ and he wasn't sure how to ease the strange ache; it was exhilarating and unfamiliar and a lot of other things Sasuke wasn't sure how to define.

"Me neither."

Blue eyes lifted up to meet Sasuke's in acknowledgement and he reached over and grabbed a handful of the dark hair behind his ear and tugged gently in affection.

He wished he could remain in this moment forever.

oOo

The next morning had been sore, if that was an appropriate way of describing a morning. Sitting up for the first time had been interesting and, when he walked, Naruto had a small limp which Sasuke had no problem pointing out or laughing about and he wasn't surprised at all when Naruto started threatening that they'd never do it again if he didn't shut up. He had leverage now and he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to use it.

"My mom's asking where I am," Naruto explained as he showed the screen of his phone in emphasis, "Heh," he laughed softly as he pulled it back to glance down at it with a nostalgic smile, "She hasn't done that since I was nine."

"Limp on home then," Sasuke teased with a smirk while Naruto tensed in irritation, "I'm kidding. I'll give you a ride," he corrected as he hopped off the edge of his bed with a gesture for Naruto to follow as he exited the room and headed down the hallway, "Oh sorry," he continued to apologize when he reached the end of the hall and turned to see the blonde several steps behind him, "I'll walk more slowly," he assured sarcastically as he slowed to an overemphasis of Naruto's speed.

"It's over," Naruto guaranteed easily, "We're never having sex again."

Sasuke turned and caught Naruto by the lips so quickly, he didn't have time to even think about denying him out of spite.

Plus, he wasn't sure he had the willpower to do it even if he had the time to think about it.

"Is that right?" Sasuke breathed after pulling back and gazing inquiringly toward blue eyes that avoided him adamantly.

"Yeah," Naruto assured in a steadfast and embarrassed tone.

Sasuke muttered a comment about the height of Naruto's tenacity and Naruto assured him it had little to do with his persistence, but Sasuke's lack thereof.

"I'm not really that stubborn. You just give up so easily–"

Before he could spit out another word, Sasuke pushed him against the hallway wall and it was seconds before they were struggling and wrestling each other to the floor in a cloud of swear words; Naruto's back hit the floor and Sasuke sat atop him before he leaned down and kissed the air from his very lungs.

Naruto kissed him back – and it made Sasuke _hard_.

"Sas'ke," the blonde breathed as Sasuke broke away to suck on the skin over his jaw near his ear; it sent chills racing up and down his spine, "_Hey_."

But Sasuke ignored him and he understood why when he leaned forward further and he realized how hard he was.

"Sasuke! I have to go. My mom's actually asking for me to come home," he reminded as he pushed him away slowly and with almost all of his strength. But Sasuke wasn't that much bigger than him and he could hold his own when he actually wanted to or needed to.

"Naruto don't you leave damn it–"

"Go take a cold shower," he advised with an affectionate smile as he pulled himself free from the teen above him, "After you give me a ride."

The advice didn't suit Sasuke well and he assured the blonde, before he opened the car door to exit where they were parked before his apartment complex, that he would not take a cold shower but he _would_ absolutely rub one out while he thought of the face Naruto made last night when he came.

He felt his cheeks burning as he approached his front door and he hoped it wasn't horribly obvious; it felt obvious to him – it was far hotter than he remembered it being just minutes ago.

He unlocked the last deadbolt before turning and waving toward Sasuke who waved back with a single eyebrow raised slightly and lips curved in that smirk that made Naruto a little crazy.

Naruto entered the dark apartment and the door shut itself behind him and he turned to stare at it before a hand wrapped around his mouth while another slammed into his abdomen in a way he couldn't describe – but it had him screaming and he realized, he didn't get hit; he got stabbed, and it was more excruciating than anything he'd ever experienced before.

The blade was pulled from his lower chest and he yelled into the hand over his mouth with little respite from the pain flaring across his lower ribs and the broken skin where the weapon entered his chest cavity. He felt cold, and clammy, and hot and sweaty, and he was in an indescribable amount of pain.

And blood poured out of his chest.

"This is what you get!" Kyuubi yelled as he dragged him toward his bedroom, "This is what you get for putting me in prison you little shithead!"

The bedroom door was pushed open and he was dragged into the room littered with a few familiar faces and one he'd never seen before – that person looked frightened, and had a gun pointed at his head.

Kyuubi dropped him on the bed and he was too disoriented to tell who had grabbed which arm, all he knew was that he couldn't move either one; and Kyuubi's hand wasn't over his mouth anymore and he was probably yelling loud enough to alert neighbors – not that they'd do anything even if any occupants of a neighboring wall heard something suspicious. No one wanted the cops here.

"Bite on it," Kyuubi demanded as he placed a folded washcloth before his mouth.

He did. But not because Kyuubi wanted him to – because he didn't want to get his mother in trouble; everything that happened between him and Kyuubi always landed in his mother's lap and she got screwed over every time. So he bit down hard and it did enough to quiet him so that it wouldn't be possible to hear him through the walls anymore.

Kyuubi climbed onto the bed and kneeled next to him, holding his waist down so he couldn't move much; not that he was trying to get free – there were just these painful contractions that curled his muscles with the need to roll over and hold himself that wouldn't respite no matter how hard he tried to remain still.

It hurt so much.

"Fix him," Kyuubi demanded to the man at the center of the room.

He looked a little startled but he kept it together well enough.

"I'm an ER doctor – I mostly see patients who have the flu, or who need stiches in their knee, or I focus on keeping patients like _him_ alive until they can transfer to a trauma center. I can't effectively save his life with the assets you've given me. I'm not fucking MacGyver!"

"Well hopefully you can do _something_ because if you don't begin to even attempt, I'll put a bullet in your head and then you'll _both_ die," Kyuubi compromised in a threatening tone.

The physician only hesitated a moment longer before reaching for the few things he did have and it was at least enough to stich the wound shut. He looked distressed as Naruto writhed against the people holding him down and screamed into the cloth between his teeth; he pulled back with a troubled glance toward Kyuubi.

"Can't I give him _something_? It's just–"

"_No!_" Kyuubi screamed, the fury clear in his even tone, "Comfort is just a luxury! And little, scheming, lying _shitheads_ don't _get_ luxuries!"

"If I can't use medication to slow his heart rate, he could die."

"That sounds nice. I'll bet he's wishing he was dead right now."

Naruto shot him a defiant glare and he shook his head while he bit down on the cloth between his teeth, head pressing back against the pillow behind him as he tried to arch a little from the horrible pain in his lower chest but he was held down so firmly he could do little more than just strain against hold on him, eyes rolling back halfway before he shut them tightly.

Kyuubi leaned a little closer so he could talk directly to him while the doctor continued on with shaking hands as he stitched the wound shut, the barrel of a gun pressed firmly to his temple.

"I'll just keep destroying everything around you until you _are_ wishing you're dead," Kyuubi promised in a steady tone, "Because there's something that you need to understand, and that is that I own you – you're not going to graduate high school, you're not going to college, you're never going to get a better job; you'll never go anywhere unless I tell you to first. And you're going to come to this conclusion all on your own very soon, I promise."

Naruto was trying to pay attention, really, he was. He got the gist of it – he was completely fucked and he was never going to escape this lifelong hold Kyuubi had on him; but he couldn't bring himself to respond to anything other than the pain he was in.

And somehow, Kyuubi seemed just fine with it.

oOo

See you next Monday :]


	10. Chapter 10: Marvin's Room

This is probably my favorite chapter. I think it felt really good to write it; like a breath of fresh air and a weight off my back :]

**Chapter Ten: Marvin's Room**

The clock on his wall said it was twelve hours that he'd been here, lying on his bloody sheets in a world of pain he couldn't have imagined possible.

But Naruto swore it was much longer – it felt like much longer.

Kyuubi and his faithful puppets left after a few hours, but they came checking in around the clock and they never left the apartment.

They didn't want the doctor escaping; Naruto knew they weren't worried about _him_ – he probably wouldn't be able to get up on his own: the doctor, however, was uninjured and very capable of getting away.

It was hot for a minute, so sweat beaded across every expanse of his skin and he shivered as the crisp morning air hit his drenched and trembling skin; but then he desperately wished he could dry off so he could warm back up so he'd be able to stop shivering because it was painful when the torn muscles around his vital organs shook in response to the drop in his body temperature in an attempt to preserve any homeostasis left in his body.

His breathing wasn't right...or _something_.

He was far too tired to scream or yell, but he clenched his teeth together anyway to muffle any of the pain he couldn't bite back; he didn't want to bother the doctor.

As if to spite his effort, he felt the material of a t-shirt against his forehead and he opened his eyes to glance over at the man held hostage with him as he attempted to dry his skin before his shivering got worse.

But it was like using windshield-wipers once for a drive in a rainstorm; by the time he moved toward his neck, the skin on his face was breaking out into a cold sweat once more and Naruto felt really hot again and he wished the doctor would leave him alone.

Until he was shivering and he just didn't know what he wanted.

The doorknob turned and the bedroom door opened with a creak and both sets of eyes glanced over as Kidomaru kicked the door open lazily.

"This is your opportunity to use the bathroom, _doc_," he explained in a mocking tone, the barrel of his gun pointed toward the man who stood after a moment in acknowledgement and left down the hallway as directed and Kidomaru remained in the doorway, eyes resting directly on Naruto who shot him a hateful look before shifting his gaze to the opposite wall.

He wished he could lie still, or quietly, or both because he knew Kidomaru's criticizing eyes were watching, but he couldn't do either for very long and he felt pathetic for it, but it was beyond his control.

"You look like you're feeling better," Kidomaru mocked from the doorway, words curved by the smirk on his lips.

"Fuck off," Naruto breathed contemptuously.

"Y'know you're not really in a good position for pissing people off."

"Tell Kyuubi – that he'd better take care of my school. They'll call," he grit out as he turned to glare at him defiantly, "And they'll know something's wrong."

The man didn't respond and it wasn't long before the doctor returned and the door was slammed shut behind him and they were left alone once more.

The doctor pulled something from the pocket of his jacket and Naruto felt his breath hitch for a moment when he caught sight of the bottle in the man's hand.

"Where'd you get that?" he breathed, the anxiety clear in his tone. He knew who that belonged to and he wished the doctor didn't have it in his hands.

That was the stash of heroin Kyuubi used to keep his mother addicted because she was much more worthless to him if she wasn't addicted. Things like that didn't work no strings attached.

"I found it in the medicine cabinet," the man explained swiftly as he pulled out the short, glass cup from the bathroom sink that he used to keep his toothbrush in and a second pill bottle, "I also dumped out the rest of the pills in this bottle and filled it with water."

He didn't explain why and Naruto didn't need him to because he also pulled out a cotton ball and a syringe and he knew what all of those things were for.

"No, don't – he'll kill us both," Naruto protested softly.

"We're both already dead," the man admitted mercilessly while Naruto's blonde eyebrows furrowed in distain and he glanced toward the man, for all it was worth, forsaken and a small part fearful, "People in my situation don't leave alive-" with gritted teeth, Naruto shifted his gaze away. Hearing the doctor, his only link to survival, predict his oncoming death, felt like the final nail in the coffin and he was close to losing it. He draped his forearm across his eyes and turned his face away completely from the man beside him. The anxiety was choking him, "-and your left lung is punctured. Your chest cavity has been slowly filling with blood and air, and when your lung collapses from the pressure, you'll suffocate in minutes without a hospital setting. We're both already dead."

Naruto only managed to choke down half a sob before it could escape, the tips of his fingers clenching against the heel of his palm; he didn't care _who_ he cried in front of anymore because he was going to die and he was in so much pain and the doctor's brutal confession ignited his anxiety and kindled his unease and he was just plain running out of hope.

His mother would probably be next – if she wasn't dead already; he didn't know. He hadn't seen her since the night of open house at the school.

And Sasuke – Sasuke was involved too, which was the thing he felt the worst about because he never needed to be; and Naruto would have no way of regulating that situation if he was dead. If he died here, there was a good chance Kyuubi would hunt Sasuke down in spite of him – maybe to kill him, maybe not, but by the look on Kyuubi's face when he was sitting in that cop car and he realized the weight of the relationship between himself and Sasuke, Naruto knew Kyuubi wanted at least a little bloodshed and not just from Naruto.

He probably already knew everything about him – Kyuubi would probably be coming in any time to tell him about something terrible planned for his piteous friend Uchiha Sasuke.

"I'm sorry – I'm stressed too," the man apologized softly as he grinded up a chunk of the substance from the small medicine jar at the bottom of the glass cup before grabbing the syringe and the pill bottle half full of water to measure out a specific amount of water, "But I'll do everything I can to keep you alive and one of the few things I _can_ do includes medicating you to slow your heart rate. The slower your heart rate is, the slower your body pumps blood into your chest. And the slower your chest fills up with blood, the better the chance you'll have to survive."

Naruto moved his forearm up slightly to rest on his forehead so he could shoot the doctor a strange look; was he trying to send a mixed message? Maybe it was some backhanded way of preventing Naruto from getting his hopes up on some sort of miracle.

He emptied the syringe into the bottom of the cup and tilted it so the powder and the water mixed at one side before setting it on the bedside table so that almost half of the base hung off the edge. He sparked a lighter beneath it and pulled out the plunger of the needle in his hand to help mix the drug until it was dissolved before kneading just a small piece of the cotton ball no bigger than the pill had been between his fingers to get it as small as possible.

The doctor tilted the cup and dropped the piece of cotton into the area where the liquid collected and watched as it absorbed all of it so easily. He cleaned and replaced the plunger before placing the needle within the cotton and drawing back slowly until the syringe sucked a little air.

With a practiced tap, he removed the trapped air and moved toward Naruto.

"You're just a kid," the man whispered somewhat dolefully as he grabbed the wrist of the forearm draped across his forehead and guided his arm to rest at his side gently, "And if easing your suffering, even if only a little, was the last thing I did, it'd be worth the risk on my part."

The needle pierced his skin and heroin was a little different when it was given to him in a less lethal dose than the ones Kyuubi gave him; even still, it didn't really touch his pain – it mostly just made him still in pain and really high. But it did help a little, and he was grateful for it.

The day progressed as slowly as the night had, and Naruto wondered if Kidomaru ever delivered his message about his school or if Kyuubi even heeded his warning if his message was delivered. Sasuke knew where he lived now; he prayed he didn't do something stupid like come looking for him – he prayed Kyuubi just called his damn school and took care of the people worrying about his absence.

Every few hours the doctor would administer the only thing that could actually take a bit of the edge off of his anxiety and he felt his opinion about the drug sway drastically.

It was nearing the early evening when his bedroom door opened again, and this time, Kyuubi was with the group that entered the room.

"You have 'mono'. So you've been withdrawn from school for the remainder of the semester," Kyuubi began with a crooked sort of smirk, "And our doctor friend here is going to help us fax over a doctor's note to make it seem real," he continued with confidence as he smiled in a threatening sort of way toward the man who raised no objection.

He turned his gaze on Naruto who glared back defiantly – even if he wasn't feeling all that defiant or confident or much of anything really.

"Sit up."

He was pulled up and sat at the edge of the bed when he failed to do it himself and he clenched his jaw to silence the anguished yell his screaming injuries wanted him to convey from the movement. If it wasn't for the drugs, he most likely would have.

"Where's my mom?" he breathed before Kyuubi reached for something in his pocket.

"Are you wondering why she wanted you to come home?" the man asked as he flashed the cell phone that belonged to his mother for him to see with an evil smirk on his twisted lips.

Naruto just stared back contemptuously, eyes glaring heatedly at the man before him.

"Wipe that look off your face," the red haired man threatened as he glared down upon Naruto intimidatingly who stared back with eyes narrowed.

"I don't have a _look_ on my face; I'm just not afraid of you."

There was a gun in his face before his voice could fade but Naruto didn't seem as fazed by it as Kyuubi wanted him to be.

"You won't shoot me–"

But before he could finish, Kyuubi was pointing the gun at Kidomaru instead and he looked a little startled.

"You," he addressed rudely as he gestured with the gun pointed at aforementioned 'you', "Would you rather go to prison or get a bullet through your forehead?"

Kidomaru didn't respond verbally because he didn't really need to.

"Put a gun at his temple and kill him if I tell you to."

The cold barrel pressed against his skin and it felt a little more difficult to breathe when he was afraid to move as the safety was clicked off. Or maybe it was that fluid building up in his lungs, who knows?

All he knew was that Kidomaru really might kill him.

Kyuubi wouldn't shoot him – no, because Naruto was still a kid and there would be more of an investigation like there was with Haku; and Kyuubi didn't want to deal with that.

But he very might indirectly put a bullet in his head by forcing Kidomaru into doing it for him.

Naruto was frightened and he was pretty sure it showed.

"Ah, it's starting to click."

Blue eyes lifted up to meet Kyuubi's and at that moment, he held up a picture of himself and Sasuke at what could be considered an intimate distance; the photo seemed to be taken from a distance and without his knowledge and he glanced away again, unable to raise his vision any further than Kyuubi's feet. He felt horribly embarrassed.

Not that _Sasuke_ was anything to be embarrassed about; it was just Kyuubi – he knew how to twist information into sharp words.

"This is the same boy who showed up that night you fucked me over and he looked pretty concerned – y'know I never pegged you as a faggot."(1)

Blonde eyebrows furrowed and Naruto bit his tongue and a phone was in his hands before he realized Kyuubi was handing him one.

"Call him. End it. It'll only get in the way."

Naruto clenched his jaw in an attempt to reign in the setback in his features; he didn't want to come off as frustrated – showing the fear he already had was bad enough. He didn't want to make his situation any worse.

His eyes shifted to the home-phone on his bedside table, and he grabbed it while depositing the one that belonged to Kyuubi on the wooden surface in exchange before dialing a number from memory, but not without blocking the number first to prevent Sakura from ever trying to call back; he only waited two and a half rings before she answered with an inquisitive '_Hello?_'

"It's Naruto."

With a startling jump from the heart in his chest, he realized, Kyuubi still hadn't used Sasuke's name – so, just to test a theory; he wouldn't either. Maybe Kyuubi wasn't as informed as he'd assumed. Maybe he'd overestimated Kyuubi's abilities. Maybe he knew nothing more than what Sasuke looked like.

"I need to talk to that asshole who never answers a phone."

"_Naruto? How're you feeling? And you know, he has a name and it's not an offensive word in any language. Is everything alright? You sound upset_."

"Everything's fine. It's probably my fever," the blonde lied easily, eyes darting to the floor in disquiet when the phone was handed over – or probably grabbed away without her consent from the sound of it.

"_Naruto?_"

It was Sasuke.

"_How are you feeling?_"

"Go somewhere where you're alone."

It was quiet for a moment before he breathed an irritated '_ok_' as he set off for his room, the door clicking shut behind him over the receiver of the phone.

"It's not working."

"_What's not working?_"

"Us. We're not working. I think we should–"

"_No you don't. Something's going on. Are you alright?_"

"Nothing's going on! I'm just not – it's just…I think we want something different."

"_That's just not the vibe I was getting_."

Sasuke wasn't buying it.

"Well then maybe you aren't as smart as you think you are."

Naruto hung up, features completely unreadable and monotone in his detachment as he set the phone on the bedside table without looking up.

There was an edge to his tone that Sasuke _wouldn't_ misunderstand.

"So what's his name?" Kyuubi inquired with an edge of frustration to his tone that had Naruto smiling in triumph – so that _was_ Kyuubi's motive and he had _nothing_ on him.

And unfortunately, for Kyuubi, now that Naruto _knew_ his motive behind that phone call was to get a name, he would never speak it, no matter what – even staring down the barrel of a gun.

Kyuubi had _nothing! _He had Sasuke's face and the knowledge that Naruto openly thought of him as an asshole, but Kyuubi didn't even know his first name. He probably had no idea Sasuke was part of his foster family either. Kyuubi had nothing and he was just bluffing.

As long as he kept his mouth shut, he'd be ok.

And for Sasuke, he didn't mind dying.

So he stared back up at Kyuubi with just as much confidence and fearlessness as he always had.

"_Ha!_"

He was backhanded on principle but Kyuubi wouldn't dare beat him any further, at least he assumed not – not with how poorly his wound was doing; the doctor continued to show concern about his condition.

Plus, he didn't care. Nothing would knock the smirk off his lips; he felt like he was on top of the world.

Until Kyuubi pushed him roughly back onto his bed and gave him one good, solid fist in the abdomen, very close to his injury, and there was a sharp pain near his shoulder before his chest hurt worse for a moment than any other injury he had and he gasped for air but he couldn't breathe and he tried to sit up but he somehow couldn't manage to; the doctor understood instantly and he reached over to pull him up because he wouldn't be able to breathe lying down anymore.

His breathing was quicker now and far too short and he looked unable to take an average or deep breath and Kyuubi stared at the doctor accusingly.

"He has to go to the hospital. His lung collapsed."

"Can you fix it?" Kyuubi asked in a threatening tone, but the doctor ignored it, two fingers pressed against the pulse in Naruto's wrist, eyebrows furrowed in unease.

"I can't fix him anymore – he's close to going into shock! And he has a fever so there's probably an infection."

"Well what do you need for something like that?"

"He needs a _surgeon_; and a hospital setting – he's not going to live without those things. He has _minutes_!"

As if to plead his case, Naruto coughed wetly, leaving a trail of blood down his chin which he wiped away with the heel of his shaking palm.

And just like that, he was pulled off his mattress and Naruto didn't remember much of how or when they got where they were parked before Kyuubi turned around to glare at him threateningly from the front seat of a car he didn't remember getting into in the first place.

"Say anything and you're dead. Get treated, don't speak, and get out."

The door was opened and he was pretty much shoved out of the car and he barely caught himself before the door was shut and the car took off in haste; he was left standing there at the sidewalk before the hospital and he felt like he couldn't breathe – he was curled forward a little, one arm grasped across his abdomen in an attempt to ease the pain.

He should walk forward – toward the door; but everything felt heavy and he felt sweaty and cold and a little bit hesitant on what to do once he _did_ get into the hospital. He wasn't supposed to say anything and, right now, he was having a difficult time separating rational thought from scattered, insignificant concepts. So he worried about if he'd be able to talk at all without slipping up about _something_.

And did Kyuubi really just drop him off at the hospital?

He should walk forward – toward the door; but everything was still heavy and he was pretty sure that the tingling edge of darkness creeping over his vision wasn't going to stay at just the edge for much longer. Plus, he wasn't breathing very easily at all.

"Hey," a young woman addressed in a soft tone from somewhere to his left, "Are you alright?"

Naruto glanced over at her – she was medical personnel of some sort; he didn't know if she was a nurse or a doctor or even just someone who worked at a desk somewhere. All he knew was that she was in scrubs and she was someone affiliated with the hospital which was better than no one noticing him at all like the way it usually went.

His eyes rolled back and he was unconscious before his knees hit the ground.

oOo

When he woke up, or at least regained memory of legitimate cognitive thought, he had a flexible tube up his nose and down his throat and he instantly hated it; there was an IV in one arm and a blood pressure cuff just several inches below it, wrapped around his forearm. There were several electrodes stuck to his chest and back and the heart monitor they were attached to beeped quicker than his heart should have been beating; he had a second IV in his left arm, but it was unhooked and currently unused.

What the hell was going on?

He felt his lungs expand but it was different than naturally and he exhaled against it while he tried to move, but a hand on his forehead stilled him momentarily and he felt his chest ache when his lungs expanded again, and again he resisted by exhaling against it.

"Don't do that or we'll have to knock you out again. Just let it help, you need it."

Naruto glanced up, a little unsure of if he was awake or not, at the woman at his bedside – it was the same woman from outside; apparently she _was_ a nurse. He was in the hospital, in a room lined with beds separated by curtains, machine's beeping loudly and frequently and medical personnel to outnumber the patients.

Was he out of his mind on drugs or was that a half-inch diameter tube in his chest?

He let his head fall back against the pillow and decided he didn't need to see anything beyond that. He felt out of it but glancing down helped him remember what happened and he knew where he was.

He was in a trauma center.

He was in a trauma center and a lot of pain – not just where Kyuubi stabbed him anymore either; he was aching _everywhere_. His muscles felt like lead and he couldn't talk. He couldn't make a single noise at all; the tube in his throat went right through his vocal chords and he couldn't even figure out how to _try_ to speak – he just couldn't.

He was trapped in a silent box where all he could express was the agony he felt through his tightly clenched fists, his resolutely sealed jaw, and the way his eyebrows furrowed while he shut his eyes firmly in an attempt to escape the pain radiating from his searing injury. He wanted to move but there was a weight pressing down on his frame and he couldn't explain it, but he felt like he wasn't quite inside his body, and unsure where he'd move to even if he managed to do more than raise his hand further than a few inches before letting it fall back to rest at his side.

"I'm sorry if you're still in pain," the nurse apologized gently as the machine next to him continued to beep a little faster than when he'd been unconscious, or closer to it, "I can give you your next bolus in two hours."

What? He was _already_ on pain medication? He was already on pain medication and still two hours from his next infusion and he still felt this horrible? That meant he would only continue to feel worse until then.

"Don't forget you can use your button," she reminded him in a tone so patient, it must have been something she told him routinely.

He glanced down toward the hand she was gesturing toward – _oh_ – he was holding something connected to the IV pole next to him and it had a little green button at the top that was lit up in a friendly gesture for the go-ahead.

He pressed it with his thumb and felt a small rush that probably would have taken his breath away if he wasn't on a ventilator regulating his oxygen intake. It helped ease some of the ache for the wound in his lower chest – but it did almost nothing for his chest tube and now he was high and in pain and he didn't really like it.

But he wasn't complaining about what little the drug did for him and he went to click it again but nothing happened and his nurse patted his hand gently.

"Every six minutes, remember? It'll light up when it's ready."

He stared at it; the light was dull for what felt like much longer than six minutes before lighting up again and he pressed it the moment it did. Because there was nothing more he wanted to or could do other than lie there and stare at it while he waited.

He felt lightheaded.

And the feeling was so strange – because he was lying down and using no energy whatsoever; but he was still so dizzy.

He shut his eyes in an attempt to make it go away but it did little to ease the feeling and he pressed his upper body back against the bed behind him; he was lying with the top half of the bed pulled up enough so that he wasn't lying flat but he wasn't upright – probably better for his lungs and easier on his injuries.

"We're checking your hemoglobin. The test should be back any time; you may need another unit of blood. It's probably making the room spin if your blood count is too low."

_Another_ unit of blood? How many had he gotten before now then? Had he really lost that much?

Was he even going to live? He wasn't all that sure right now; and it didn't look like his nurse was all that sure either.

"Your fever's still very high, but not like before," the nurse continued as she brushed back the sweaty bangs plastered to his forehead and he cracked blue eyes open to acknowledge her, "But the infection seems to be responding well to the antibiotics. You were running a hundred and six for a while there but while you were asleep it fell all the way down to a hundred and four. Some good news, finally," she delivered with an optimistic smile. He just stared at her – he didn't know what the hell else to do. That didn't sound like all that great of news; it seemed more substandard.

He had an infection? If he was responding to medication then that probably explained why he was finally able to form some sort of coherent thought for the first time since he arrived; he didn't know when that was – hours or days: no idea whatsoever.

All he remembered was that a significant amount of time passed in an odd state of mind – one he didn't wish to return to.

"Is there someone you want us to get into contact with? We do have ways of communicating. I know I keep saying it, but I'm not sure you hear me sometimes."

Naruto didn't remember her saying it before; he didn't remember much of her speaking at all, what the hell? But he shook his head softly in negation and the woman furrowed her eyebrows, features somewhat taken aback.

"What?"

By her reaction, it might not have been the first time she asked, but it was definitely the first time he responded and she seemed a little speechless.

"Are–are you sure? Most children – most _people_ don't want to be alone…"

But again he shook his head and this time he shut his eyes tightly, maybe in some sort of attempt to escape from her, and the woman furrowed her eyebrows at the situation before her.

"Well can I have your name? Do you think you can tell me that?"

But again, he shook his head and he kept his eyes shut as he avoided her in any way he could.

Most people didn't react the way he was in a situation as serious as this; most children and even most young adults wanted their parents – even a good proportion of middle-aged and elderly patients had _someone_. So the fact that he so badly didn't want anyone here made it instantly suspicious.

Plus, he was a minor, so if he was refusing to give them contact information, she had protocol to follow.

"Hey, I'm gonna need CPS on a patient," the nurse requested through the small receiver attached to the sleeve of her shirt.

"_Which patient, Shizune?_"

"Uh, patient zero-seven-one-two," she replied as she lifted Naruto's forearm gently to check the number on the band around his wrist.

Naruto couldn't really _cry_ – but tears poured down his face with his frustration because even though he kept his mouth shut, CPS was getting involved and Kyuubi was going to _kill_ him; he could make no noise of protest and he wanted to speak or at least communicate his discontent.

He wouldn't go home with Sasuke or anyone from that household; he wouldn't get put in any foster home at all – if he remained as silent as he planned on being, he would go straight to a group home the second he was discharged while they tried to figure out who he was and where he came from and which family he belonged to, if any at all. They just didn't have funding to spend time on finding another nameless sixteen-year-old from one of the worst neighborhoods in the city a good home; it'd be different if he was nine, like when he found the Uchiha's.

Well, more like when _Sasuke_ found _him_.

And it'd be different if they didn't assume his injury was gang related like Naruto expected they would.

"I'm sorry, you're probably so scared," Shizune soothed in a soft voice as she brushed away the tear tracks from his whiskered cheeks. _Should_ he be scared? She sounded confident that he should. It made his anxiety spike, "But you should feel optimistic. Your surgery was very successful," he had surgery? "And you're doing much better today than when you got here on Monday."

Monday? When was Monday? He just stared at her because all of that was useless information to him with his state of mind.

"It's Wednesday," she continued, as if she read his thoughts right off the paper filling the file in her lap; there wasn't a machine that did that, right? No way, that was impossible. Those were the drugs putting corrupted thoughts in his mind. She was probably very experienced with people in Naruto's situation if she worked in a trauma center. She understood a thing or two about his ability to retain information with the amount of drugs he was on; especially if he was put under for surgery sometime within the past few days, or if he was running a temperature of a hundred and six degrees.

"We're going to see about getting that tube out after seeing those test results. If your blood count is low, we're going to keep it in until after your blood transfusion is finished and we get a new read on your numbers. So just be strong a little longer; the worst part is over."

His tests came back and his hemoglobin was still low, so his nurse had the second IV going with a transfusion while the other pumped fluids into his bloodstream and every few minutes the blood pressure cuff would tighten around his forearm and the machine would beep for Shizune to warn her that his blood pressure was too low and his heart rate too high, and the machine hooked up to his chest tube clicked softly at different intervals as it pulled the excess fluid from around his collapsed lung, and the machine breathing for him would hiss every few moments so softly, it was mostly drown out by the other noises filling the air; but Naruto heard it – honed in on it – and all of it was so overwhelming because he couldn't get away from it.

He couldn't help but feel anxious and restless and uneasy, especially with the way his heart raced, even though he did nothing but lie there while everything connected to him survived for him. He wished he could just…briefly escape from it, even if only for a small moment, just to catch his bearings and reign in his sanity a little.

But that was impossible so he laid there and did _nothing_ but feel how much pain he was in.

Four and a half hours later, as the transfusion finished itself off, his blood pressure raised a bit but his heart rate didn't change; he was in too much pain for that to drop significantly, and Shizune took that into consideration when deciding whether to pull the tube or not.

He wasn't sure how long it would be between his blood transfusion and the removal of his breathing tube, but he was pretty sure a significant amount of time was passing. He had a strange dream that felt more like choppy recollections of the past few days and he wondered if those days really happened or if he just dreamt they did and _when_ they happened – if they happened – he didn't know; he was having a difficult time sorting out strange memories of events he wasn't sure happened from reality and the day he was in right now. It was all very strange.

And then there was that thing Shizune did with the machine attached to the tube down his throat that suctioned all the excess fluid from his lungs. It made him cough and it was _painful_ as it agitated the fresh wounds in his abdomen in a way that made his eyes water without consent and he really didn't give a fuck if he cried in front of Shizune; he'd already done it once before and nothing horrible happened then.

It didn't matter; Shizune seemed genuinely apologetic the entire time she had to do it and for several minutes after – so he felt safe assuming that he wasn't overreacting. She had a way of reassuring him without even knowing it.

When she was done, he laid there completely winded, and it felt like he couldn't catch his breath. What should he do? She returned the machine to normal; it was breathing averagely for him – but he felt short-winded and unable to do a thing about it. It was uncomfortable, and he felt dizzy again, like when he was low on blood and he wanted to _say_ something but he physically _couldn't_: not until the tube was gone.

"You might feel out of breath – it's ok. You'll feel better soon. I'm sorry."

She kept apologizing; like it was her fault he was hanging on to life by a tendon when he never would have had a _thing_ to grasp on to if it hadn't been for her.

When he _did_ finally get the tube out, he still needed oxygen through the mask over his lower face and it was more difficult to breathe than he'd anticipated but he'd been assured that it was normal and that the fluid around his lungs was receding and his collapsed lung was doing well despite how frustrated he felt with how hard it was to keep his oxygen level normal. He needed a lot of assistance with breathing throughout the day when those numbers dropped.

But that's what the nurse assigned to him solely twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week was for.

He could talk now – not that he spoke a word; he was just able to express his pain more openly which he resisted from doing as much as possible.

Shizune was his favorite nurse; she was so empathetic to him – his other nurses were nice too but not like she was. She actually talked to him about what was going on. His other nurses didn't seem to have the same type of patience. Or maybe they just thought he couldn't follow what they were saying so they didn't bother trying to give him details. They probably thought he was stupid; especially with the way he just stared at them, somewhat distantly thanks to the drugs, any time he was asked a question.

He felt more at ease when Shizune was working; he couldn't explain it – he was just grateful she worked a lot. She had been his day nurse pretty consistently.

Still, no matter what, he couldn't say a word. He knew if he began communicating about one thing, it would lead to another, and he wasn't sure he'd be able to shut his mouth before it was too late, and he knew it by the way he desperately wanted to just unclench his teeth and scream for someone that gave a shit – Mikoto, Sasuke, his mom if she was still alive; anyone willing to sit there and lie to him about how this was nothing and how he'd be better really soon if he just kept his eyes forward and stayed optimistic.

He really wanted to see someone he knew just to have something to lean against – someone to carry just a fraction of his burden so it wouldn't _seem_ so bad anymore.

He had always shouldered a respectable amount of responsibilities, even at a young age; but this was different from a scraped knee or a broken arm or bills to pay or Kyuubi's imprisonment of him and his mother – and he ached for his father worse than he had since he was a child and the wound was fresh because everything he did failed horribly and he was realizing with a profound amount of trepidation that maybe he couldn't do this on his own.

Especially when the ache progressed to that stabbing pain in his abdomen and he realized it wasn't loneliness burning his chest, it was his sore lungs, and the wound running an inch and a half long and four inches deep just under his ribcage; the chest tube hurt sharply and it felt raw, with the way his skin ached around it every time his chest moved with each breath he took and his muscles shook with the effort it took not to scream or yell.

But even then he couldn't have stopped that pathetic groan from slipping out, or the way he whined softly for his father before he realized that he'd mumbled it aloud and he tried to shut his mouth but a new wave of pain sort of forced him to forget and he groaned a little more in distress when his breathing started to quicken.

These drugs were fucking with his head.

"Deep breath," Shizune coaxed as she sat his bed up a few degrees closer to upright; not so far that he had to support himself, but enough to help open up his lungs, "Remember about breathing too quickly?"

Yeah, it was bad for him; he got it.

But it was really hard, if not just downright impossible for him to slow down at times – times like now when every inhale was painful because he was coming down off his bolus of pain medication so every breath sent his cognitive spiraling with mixed signals and every synapse firing with response to _pain, pain, pain!_

All he could do was gasp, groan, and gasp more for air while Shizune coached him back into a normal breathing range, one shaking, pale hand clenching at his bare chest while the other clutched the breathing mask over his face; sometimes it felt like it was suffocating him and he tried to pull it away just to relieve the feeling of claustrophobia before Shizune would redirect it over his mouth and he would leave it there for a while because it _was_ easier to breathe with it on, even if his poorly running cognition wouldn't allow him to perceive it that way. He just understood it better after taking a few gasps at the same air Shizune was breathing.

"Do you want us to call your dad?" Shizune asked gently, when his oxygen level was returning to normal and he was breathing less harshly.

Naruto just stared at her for a moment before glancing away to stop himself from talking.

Shizune was so nice to him – there was no irritation or impatience in her tone; she was merely asking should he be too afraid or winded to voice the question himself. He was lucky to have her.

Yeah, he did want them to call his dad – he wanted them to call him back from the dead so he could have some concrete ground to stand on in this fucked up world he lived in.

But that was impossible so he shook his head softly and he refused to meet her gaze for a _while_.

A few days showed him incredible progress and he was able to sit up – if he wasn't lying down completely flat – and scoot to the edge of the bed. It was strange how exhausting holding himself up was, and he wasn't even on his feet; it was a little startling that it made him this dizzy.

He had spent a total of five days in the trauma center so far and Shizune kept saying he'd probably be ready to transfer to the pediatric ward by tomorrow which would be a lot more comfortable considering he'd have his own room.

That was something he was looking forward to.

"Shizune."

Naruto glanced up at the familiarity of the voice addressing his nurse in complete disbelief to see the large-chested woman approaching.

"What the hell? Naruto?"

Naruto sighed for himself as he avoided Tsunade's inquisitive stare, features twisted with incredulity; Shizune seemed taken aback by all of it.

"You know his name?" Shizune asked while she turned more fully toward Tsunade.

"Of course I know his name! He's a student at the high school."

"What the hell are you even doing here?" Naruto breathed with a good amount of difficulty; the question left him winded and breathing a little quicker than before he'd opened his mouth.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Tsunade countered as she approached his bedside without hesitation.

"I'm sick; we faxed you the doctor's note already so go away."

He was trying to pull the sheets on his bed up to cover his chest, but he seemed just as hesitant to lie the material across his wounded abdomen and Tsunade shot the ceiling an unamused look for his attempt at playing it off.

"Naruto, you don't get admitted to a level one _trauma_ center for 'mono'," she replied easily, while Shizune stared oddly at both of them.

"Mono?" the brunette questioned, eyebrows furrowed, "He doesn't have mono."

"No," she agreed in an imposing tone, "He doesn't."

"Why are you drilling me? _Fuck_. I'm in the hospital," the blonde complained with enough frustration in his quiet tone to make his point as he closed his eyes and released his sheets with an irritated edge, one hand rising to rest on his chest; all this talking was getting him winded and he was wary that his breathing rate would escalate.

"Deep breath," Tsunade instructed, earning an odd stare from the blonde in the hospital bed – he was expecting the order to come from Shizune.

He focused on trying to get his chest cavity to expand far enough to count as a 'deep breath' but it was difficult to do when every small inhalation horribly irritated the incisions along his chest.

"Shizune, let me see his chart."

Naruto's head popped off his pillow and he stared at Tsunade like she was mad.

"You can't just look at my medical records! That's against the law!" he reminded in a breathless tone; he was getting lightheaded.

"I teach a class at this hospital in the evenings and I have a valid license to practice – I'm not breaking any laws."

"You are if I didn't consent–"

"You're a minor, and a ward of the state. So it doesn't matter which doctors you want to see your case file. Plus, emergency and trauma situations have similar exceptions due to the inability of the patient to consent to life-saving situations."

"I'm conscious enough now to make decisions for myself," he argued steadily.

"But when you factor in all the drugs pumping through your system and tickling your little brain, you can't really assume that you'd be able to make the rational decision in any given situation; like now for instance – I'm a very good doctor. Maybe I could save your life. This series of events is a situation where I have reason to look in your file," she explained while flipping open the manila folder like she owned the place.

"I'm not dying anymore. But you _definitely_ weren't saving my life when I was – Shizune saved my life," he urged, his voice growing softer and more difficult to use with each word he spoke.

Her features grew more solemn the longer she read and for a moment, Naruto thought he might have finally shut her up.

But she flipped the record closed and handed it back before shooting Naruto a reassuring smile that caught him off guard.

"Then teaching her, alone, was worth my entire career in the medical field," Tsunade deemed easily, earning an odd look from the blonde; he seemed startled by the affection he heard there and her smile softened, "You need to stop talking for now until your breathing rate returns to normal."

He just stared at her – that's all he could do; he was taken aback by all of it and a little overwhelmed by the comfort of a familiar adult that actually gave him some solid direction to follow.

"I'll call the Uchiha's."

Naruto felt his heart jump – no! They couldn't call the Uchihas! Kyuubi would kill him if he found out.

"Just call my mom – she's my legal guardian."

"Explain to me what happened first," she compromised as she crossed her arms over her large chest.

"I got jumped. That's why I have no wallet."

What a convenient truth for the lie that his custody rested upon.

"It's true, he didn't have one on him when he got here. It's part of why we didn't know his name," Shizune supplied in a mostly convinced tone.

But he was on a lot of drugs, and he was finding it difficult to think as quickly as he usually did and he really hoped Tsunade didn't drill into details.

"Why'd you refuse to tell anyone your name then? What do you have to hide?"

"Because I know they wouldn't believe me! It's not the first time it's happened; I've just never been stabbed before."

It was true, he'd been mugged before – several times; and it was also true that CPS had checked up on him once after a nasty beating in a back alley sometime around the age of thirteen when he refused to give up his wallet, so it wasn't difficult to relay the information.

"Tsunade-sama…?"

"I know you're lying," Tsunade assured easily while he shot her an irritated glare.

"How would you know? You weren't _there_. You can't take me away for getting jumped; we just live in a bad area. Being poor isn't a _choice_ – do you have any idea what it's like for my mom? You can't just move away somewhere better! It doesn't work that way! Where would we get the money?"

"This isn't about your family's financial state. Your situation is unique because of certain affiliations you and your mother have, not to mention that I _know_ you; you're convincing enough to hoodwink someone like Shizune who knows very little about you – but I'm more familiar with your behaviors. I know you're lying. You didn't get mugged," Tsunade argued steadily; Naruto glared heatedly at her for what he knew she was going to pursue next, "Does the reason you got stabbed possibly have anything to do with your mother's boyfriend?"

He didn't even want to know how she knew about any of that and he felt his frustration spike.

"He's not her boyfriend," he denied heatedly.

"That's how you identified him to police in the past."

"I was fucked up on drugs when that happened–" he was too fucked up on drugs to wonder how she even knew about such an isolated incident, "–but even if he was her boyfriend, and even if even if it did have to do with him, how does that become _her_ fault? Huh? If he wanted to, he could find me anywhere I was."

"But the fact is that you've never been taken from or hurt while with the Uchiha's; you've never even entered a threatening situation while living there. This isn't about whether or not your mother would ever hurt you – and it's not her fault she can't put you in a safe setting; but our main concern is that you're a minor and you're consistently in a threatening environment because you're far more accessible to a person who continues to antagonize you when you're living there. And I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. That's what the statistics show."

"That's not true, someone shot at us at the Uchiha's not that long ago."

"While you were in your mother's custody," she clarified in an unwavering tone.

"You've been looking for a reason to put me in foster care," Naruto accused with furrowed eyebrows and an angry fire to his glassy eyes.

"Yes, I have. You're grades are suffering horribly and you look _sick_ half the time – not as much this semester; you've pulled most of your grades up to a C. But you downright failed most of your classes last semester. I know your potential and I know things aren't going well for you."

"They were before _this!_ And they will be after," he insisted, the injustice clear in his tone.

"I'm calling the Uchihas," Tsunade finalized; Naruto's features twisted in disappointment and he let his head fall back against the bed behind him as he closed his eyes and released a noise of frustration.

"Tell them to just send Sasuke," he pleaded softly, eyes avoiding any _person_ within his vicinity.

"I'll tell them that's what you want. Shizune finish out your shift; I'll make the call and you can meet me at the front desk."

With that she turned and left and there was nothing Naruto could have done to stop or even prolong the inevitable and he felt his frustration building and it made his throat feel much smaller and his breathing was getting quicker.

"_Fuck!_" he breathed as he forced away the urge to cry, but he was so frustrated and it was difficult to do, especially with all his pain and the drugs in his system.

"Everything will be ok," Shizune promised in a voice hardly above a whisper, Naruto stared at her quietly as he attempted to control his breathing because he wasn't sure how to respond. People didn't usually tell him that, "Things have a way of smoothing themselves over – you just have to give it time."

If only he had time; Kyuubi was out of prison – and he saw Sasuke's face before he went in: which meant he spent three months figuring out how to get back at Naruto.

"Deep breath," she continued gently when he started to wheeze a little.

"Good evening, you two," the night nurse greeted while Shizune turned before rising from her chair to meet her acknowledgement and return the salutation.

"Look, don't feel down, ok? You'll probably get to transfer upstairs very soon; I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto-kun."

"Naruto-kun?" the night nurse questioned as she turned inquisitive eyes on her young patient.

"Yeah, it's my name," he supplied between the deep breaths Shizune was reminding him to take, gaze resting somewhere around his knees and avoiding hers at all costs. The night nurse picked up where Shizune left off, and it wasn't long before he was breathing normally again and he tried not to let his frustration choke him up any more than his pain already did.

He was tired. He wanted to try and sleep.

But his foster family was probably going to be here soon after straightening everything out with CPS. He prayed they heeded his request; he wasn't sure he could see all of them right now.

"Is there a shirt or something I could get on?"

He was wearing hospital shorts, but a shirt would be nice. He really didn't want anyone to see his chest; it was probably gross – he hadn't really looked yet. He saw the chest tube and that was bad enough. He wasn't sure how bad the wound in his lower-chest looked. Either way, he wouldn't be able to downplay it if it was out in the open. So, a little cover would help.

"Sure, I'll get someone to bring one over."

Sitting up to get the shirt on had been the hardest part. It was light green and it slid on like a vest. His left arm went in easy as the IV on that one was unattached, but his nurse had to pause his IV and detach the lines for his right arm. It only took a moment and he felt better when he was able to drape the left half of his shirt over his chest to cover his injury and the entrance site to the chest tube. He couldn't pull the right side up to meet the left half; he was pretty sure he'd upset the chest tube if he did – although he wasn't positive and he wasn't about to give it a go just to find out.

All he knew was that he was exhausted and perfectly fine with just the left half of the shirt lying loosely across his chest because even that small amount of pressure somehow managed to _hurt_ so it wasn't stretching it to assume he'd probably prefer it this way anyway.

It was less than an hour before he heard a familiar voice from very close down the hall and he looked up in time to see Sasuke only several steps away.

"This explains a lot," the brunette began as he approached the edge of the bed carefully and sat at the chair on his left side, opposite from the nurse.

"Please forgive me Sasuke," he breathed as he pulled the mask off his face to speak more directly at the person before him, "I didn't want–"

But he cut himself off there with a frustrated look and he furrowed his eyebrows as he broke eye contact; to Sasuke it looked like he wanted to continue – like he had so much to say. But his posture took Sasuke a little by surprise and he realized, for the first time, Naruto never wanted to keep him in the dark; Naruto was being threatened into keeping his mouth shut, and he felt excruciatingly guilty for his lack of empathy. He gave Naruto a lot of shit about the amount of information he decided to share.

"What happened, dobe?" Sasuke questioned softly.

"I'm sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sasuke don't you even get it at all?" the blonde began, as he stared regretfully toward the brunette to his left, "Kyuubi saw you. When he finds you, he's going to _fucking_ kill you – just to get back at me."

"First of all, he's in prison so what are you even talking about?"

Naruto's lips parted as he realized with a sinking feeling how the information he provided strongly insinuated that Kyuubi was out of prison and that he was directly responsible for his hospitalization.

"He's out on parole," the blonde mumbled as his gaze shifted away.

"So is Kyuubi the one who did this to you then?"

He did nothing to acknowledge the question Sasuke asked him and his downcast eyes shifted further away. His nurse glanced up to see his response; she saw a lot of this working in a trauma center – a lot of trauma patients had gang affiliations: especially with where their hospital was located.

But Naruto ignored Sasuke valiantly so she returned her attention to her paperwork and she read the machines and recorded his vitals; he'd been ignoring that same line of questions for a week.

"Ok, I get it," Sasuke snapped, when Naruto refused to recognize the question, "I get it," he repeated in a nicer tone, "I'll drop it."

Blue eyes lifted to meet Sasuke's dark ones and Naruto shot him an inquiring gaze with furrowed eyebrows.

"I'm trying to act more 'empathetic'," the brunette explained in a somewhat apathetic tone that contradicted his message. But Naruto knew he wasn't going to convey it in his tone – not if he was saying it too; it was one or the other if either at all.

Naruto parted his lips to respond but the pain around his chest tube flared and he shut his eyes, teeth clenching shut as he pressed his head back against the pillow beneath him. He felt himself break out in a cold sweat.

"Dobe, you ok?"

The nurse glanced up at the concern in his voice and she looked down upon Naruto, examining his features and the way he went to clench his chest with his left arm but only let it hover over the area where his chest tube was before curling his fingers and pulling back a little. He had the urge to grab at the area radiating pain, but he knew he'd only make it worse for himself, so he resisted and he hoped it would pass soon.

"I need to check your chest tube," the young woman explained before gently lifting and opening the shirt to reveal most of his chest.

Naruto glanced toward Sasuke and Sasuke looked up toward him a little breathlessly after seeing what lie beneath his thin hospital shirt; he wasn't expecting for it to be so bad.

Her fingers ran along the tube and Naruto felt unease rush up and down his spine because pain medication didn't even _touch_ his chest tube, and he didn't like that she was touching it so much; any movement of it at all was horribly painful.

"There's a small clog," the nurse explained as she kneaded the tube an inch and a half away from where it entered his chest.

Naruto groaned from the way it irritated the skin around the tube as it bent in her fingers; it was enough to cause his sharp breathing to get a little quicker because he was afraid of expanding his chest cavity and causing himself any more pain.

"Try and breathe normally, okay?"

"Ok-ay," he grit out through tightly clenched teeth.

But it was just impossible and he was beginning to feel frustrated too.

"Naruto, look at me," Sasuke coaxed, pulling his gaze from his nurse's hands to meet Sasuke's dark eyes, "Last weekend, my parents took us hiking. They're on a nature trip since Sakura's retreat and while we were on this trail, my dad saw a fawn stuck in a pond – deep breath, dobe – It was supposed to rain that night and he didn't want it to drown so he went to help it out. As soon as he got it out, the mother showed up and rammed him into the pond and my mom made him sit in the trunk the whole way home because she didn't want him to ruin the interior. It was so great."

Naruto closed his eyes halfway through Sasuke's recollection and his lips curved into a soft smile for half a moment as he thought about it before the pain in his chest re-grounded him – he could see it; Mikoto was the only person alive that could actually intimidate a man like Fugaku into doing as she said.

His nurse sighed in relief and she released the tube gently as she grabbed for her paperwork to record everything she needed to and Naruto released the breath in his lungs in the small amount of relief it gave him.

"We're lucky – it came loose pretty fast. I was about to call the surgeon for advice," she admitted in a strangely optimistic tone that didn't really convey the message of her words; Naruto just dodged a bullet – if the clog was bad enough, there was a good chance they'd have to give him an entirely new chest tube and somehow, a third hole in his chest sounded unappealing.

"Hm," she hummed as she glanced toward the clock on the wall and again at the chart, "You're due for a bolus."

She moved toward the IV pole to press at the buttons on the PC pump where he got his pain medication.

The concentration of the drug in his blood stream increased as she administered his bolus and Sasuke watched as his eyelids slipped half shut and it looked like drowsiness was blanketing over him as the drug developed efficiency by the adjustment of the strength of it while it pumped through his veins.

He tried to blink away his fatigue before shifting his gaze to stare at his nurse with furrowed eyebrows and he prayed he didn't look as desperate as he felt. He was exhausted.

"I wanna go home," he breathed in an almost pleading tone – as if there was something his nurse could do about it. To Sasuke, it sounded like something he asked about a lot.

"You can't go home – not for a few more days at least; you're transferring out of here sometime tonight actually so that's something to look forward to. I'm waiting to hear back when a room opens up; they're about to start discharging a patient right now so it should be sometime tonight or early tomorrow."

"_Tomorrow?_"

"Discharging takes a while – trust me, if they're just starting now, it'll be a while. Do you know how many signatures you need for that? And tracking down all the doctors that need to approve it–"

Naruto shifted his tired gaze back to Sasuke as she plowed on, eyes on the chart within the folder on her lap that she was filling out, and he tuned out the rest of what she said which wasn't _too_ much as she returned the majority of her attention to her work.

"Sasuke, I wanna go."

"You can't," he reemphasized with an affectionate and somewhat sad smile; he was willing to try anything.

"Yeah, I can – I'll be fine; they can't actually make me stay here. It's not prison. You can help me leave."

"If you try and leave, I'll fifty-one-fifty you – you'd be out of your mind to misunderstand how badly you need to be here. You can't leave, especially not with your chest tube still in; you'll die outside of the hospital right now," his nurse interrupted without even lifting her eyes from the charts in her lap.

Naruto didn't turn to acknowledge her but Sasuke could tell her words sunk in by the sour look on his face as he glared with half-lidded eyes toward nothing in particular.

"It'll be over soon, dobe, and I won't leave so just hang in there."

And he didn't leave, even though Naruto kept drowsily insisting that he go home and sleep as it got later but he didn't waver and he sat there quietly even when Naruto drifted in and out of the small amount of light sleep he was able to get through the early morning; it was so noisy here – he was surprised anyone slept at all.

He usually only woke up to press the button in his hand before drifting off again and every so often he'd get yanked from sleep by the worsening pain when he'd neglected it for too long and Sasuke could see the frustration in his features when it woke him up.

It was somewhere near four-thirty when an administrator came to inform his nurse that the room would be ready within the hour and she thanked him for letting them know before he turned and left and she reached for something near the ground.

"Did Shizune empty this and forget to record it? Do you remember when she last emptied it?" the nurse asked as she examined the container where his chest tube emptied into.

"She didn't empty it today. She said she didn't need to – she said you must have emptied it just before she got here," he mumbled groggily, eye-lids heavy but cognition in motion at the idea of getting out of _here_.

"Well that's good news because the last time I drained it was this time yesterday and there's only 37cc's in here; that's a pretty good indication that you're ready to get the chest tube out."

When Naruto heard 'ready to get the chest tube out' he wanted it instantly, and he fixated on any attempt he could think of to sway her to just do it now – that he'd be fine and probably recover more quickly without the horrible pain of having it; especially if he didn't need it.

But she just smiled sweetly at his attempts and assured him that it was information she would verbally pass along to his pediatric nurse when he was transferred and they would probably decide when he got there. Plus, the low drainage could be from the blockage and they'd need time for more tests to be sure because they didn't want to pull it until they were sure.

It was about fifteen minutes before a pair of nurses came to move him and it took forever because they had to move his IV and the machine draining his chest cavity with him. But when he finally got there, he felt his anxiety ease by just the change of environment alone; it was far less intense on the pediatric ward and most of the hospital personnel walking around here seemed cheerful and bubbly. It made him _feel_ like a kid, which he usually didn't.

His room was painted with big, bright otters near the top half of the wall and he loved staring at each of them as they wrapped around the walls, each as cute and unique as the last; it was way better than the pale green walls covering most of the rest of this place. It was a retro style of art that was probably painted sometime during their early childhood and it made him feel young and somehow more comfortable, and the drugs he was on made the colors so appealing – appealing enough to take his mind off his pain a small bit. It made him feel a little less like he was in the hospital.

He was glad he was still young enough to get on this ward.

"Somehow I feel nostalgic," Sasuke admitted, eyes glued to the wall where Naruto was staring as well.

"I was thinking the same thing," he breathed with a grateful smile through a drowsy yawn, "It makes me feel better."

It was another two days before he got his chest tube out, and it was incredible how quickly Naruto regained movement afterward. He was up and walking and when he was discharged just days later, he seemed to be recovering quickly. Physically – he was returning to his previous condition in leaps and bounds. He was right on track and maybe even a little ahead in his healing process.

But he had become detached – far worse than he had any time before; and none of them really knew how to approach it or even bring it up. Naruto twisted every explanation because _everything_ was always _ok_ and _no big deal_ so _nothing to worry about_.

He spent his month of summer vacation staring out his bedroom window and agreeing to everything anyone suggested; he never said no and he never had an opinion on anything. He was so busy convincing everyone around him that he _wasn't_ absolutely lost inside his mind that he forgot to act confrontational and witty. He forgot to point out every stupid flaw to anything that bothered him, even when none existed. He forgot to act like Naruto.

But still, he wasn't acting unhappy or inconvenient, so how did someone have the right to complain about his attitude adjustment. Until it was detrimental to the rest of them, none of them had any business asking about it.

Naruto felt like time was at an absolute standstill; he didn't know what to expect next – he didn't know what the next milestone was or how to reach it. All he knew was that sitting at whatever strange dead end he was at right now wasn't going to solve his problems or make them disappear.

Kyuubi was lurking around somewhere, he just knew it, and he was probably pissed as hell that he was in foster care.

He was just waiting for the right time to approach him about it.

It was one afternoon just before the end of his summer vacation, when he'd been walking back to the bus station from a visit with Gaara that Kyuubi found him.

He was grabbed by the back of his shirt and dragged into the alleyway as he passed it before he was shoved up against the brick wall of the building behind him and two hands were laced into the front of his shirt threateningly.

"You weren't supposed to speak! You idiot! I could have easily abducted you from a group home, especially if they didn't have your _fucking_ name!"

"I didn't give them my name!" the blonde insisted, a pleading in his tone that sounded as genuine as it came, "My teacher showed up for something else and she told them my name! I didn't say _anything_ I swear!"

"And how am I supposed to know that you're not _lying?_"

"Well no one's bothered you, have they?" Naruto shot back accusingly, "I didn't say anything! She just gave them my name–"

"Don't get comfortable because this isn't over. You'll be back before you know it."

He shoved Naruto back against the wall roughly before releasing him and disappearing around the corner and Naruto stood there, leaning back against the wall as he held onto his lower chest with one arm wrapped around his abdomen; they told him to take it easy – that his lung could collapse again if he was too active too soon.

And when his back hit the wall, it felt like he'd been punched in the chest and he worried about his lung collapsing a second time; they told him it was likely it could. And giving it a good shove sounded like a good way to provoke it.

Kyuubi probably knew that.

But he was able to steady his breathing and the sharp pain receded and he knew he was ok for now.

Kyuubi said it. It still wasn't over – so he was _still_ at a standstill and he was _still_ standing before the very same dead end he'd envisioned previously; only now, he was positive it existed and now he knew Kyuubi wasn't giving up on getting him back into his mother's custody.

And he realized – he had no dice to throw; all he could do was sit and wait for Kyuubi to throw his.

oOo

1. I hate this word. It offends me. But it fits very well into the exact thing I want Kyuubi to do to Naruto and that is, insult him. I do not extend that insult to you, the reader, and I definitely don't condone the use of that word in any way; my aim is more to make an example at how offensive it is.

Also, I know that in Naruto's situation while he's in the hospital, he would have a tracheostomy stoma and a breathing tube through his neck – not a nasotracheal tube – but for personal reasons, I can't write about former. So it is what it is :]

One chapter to go! See you next monday!


	11. Chapter 11: Thirty Days, Life

It's the last chapter so I thought I'd give it to you guys a day early – I think there's like three of you reading lol but the three of you seem to like it :] so I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter Eleven: Thirty Days, Life**

School started and Naruto and his classmates were seniors; but Naruto was taking very few of the same classes as the rest of them – he had a lot to make up from his second failed semester last year.

But he really didn't care – he didn't see himself finishing this year; he didn't see himself finishing this semester. He didn't really feel _alive_ after his encounter with Kyuubi. He didn't feel dead and he definitely didn't feel like dying; it just felt as if everything around him was surreal and like time wasn't moving forward at all. He didn't feel alive because all he could focus on was his anxiety, this uneasy anticipation as he waited for whatever was next. He worried about his mother and if she was ok, he worried for Sasuke and feared the day someone delivered grave news about him, and he worried for everyone else inhabiting the Uchiha household just for being affiliated with him.

He worried for everyone around him but he couldn't _do_ anything. For the first time in his life, he had no idea what to do; nothing came to him – he was so absorbed by this horrible, life-consuming fear of the next thing to expect. Kyuubi _stabbed_ him; and it was the worst thing he'd ever done to Naruto. He really thought he would die for a good amount of time before his arrival at the hospital.

He had nightmares about it just about any time he fell asleep. Usually he just woke up with a startled jolt and he was quiet enough not to disturb Sasuke who'd been sleeping next to him every night since his return from the hospital.

But some nights, he woke up soaked in sweat, and out of breath, and his scars would ache painfully and his eyes would glance to his right to see Sasuke watching him with very little expression on his placid features.

But Naruto could see the worry within his eyes and he was silently telling Naruto, _I'm here and I can listen too, you know_.

Some nights he might admit he was having a nightmare about the hospital and nothing more. But most nights, he just told Sasuke to fuck off and rolled over to avoid his inquiring gaze.

Sasuke always let it drop. He was being more understanding than Naruto could ever recall and just knowing that he wasn't taking all his pent up frustration to heart helped ease a small part of the anxiety wrapped around his tired mind; it was Sasuke's way of helping him – only he knew how to. Most people just didn't understand how he functioned.

Not like Sasuke.

The rest of the family wasn't taking his distance as easily.

Naruto wanted to remove himself from them – he wanted to spare them from the risk they took when housing him; but there was nothing he could think of that would work and he wasn't used to how helpless it felt to have nothing within his control. So he became emotionally distant and it was obvious right away.

It developed over the small shift in his speech patterns and how he became much more talkative about nothing that mattered and everything that didn't and he knew a lot of people could tell; he was positive – but he really just didn't care: because no one had any jurisdiction to do a god damn thing about it.

He stood before his locker, staring dejectedly toward nothing in particular as the same line of questions attacked his mind. _What are you going to do? Why haven't you thought of anything yet? Why are you wasting so much time?_

"Naruto," Neji called in a hushed tone as he motioned for him to come over, a folder in his hand that looked suspiciously like a case-file. Naruto didn't hesitate because of the one thing on his mind and nothing else mattered, "I have the thing you asked for."

Neji finally managed to run that license plate.

Naruto took it easily and his eyes roamed the information in the folder resting in his hands.

Neji watched his eyebrows furrow and his lips part in disbelief. Something was wrong. Something was really wrong.

Naruto knew he hit his milestone – he knew the thing in his hands counted as a set of dice; and he knew it was his turn and he was going to play. Because suddenly, he was filled with so much vengeance, that he cared very little of anything else.

"Naruto?"

But Naruto didn't respond right away because he turned toward his locker to shove his backpack and the folder inside.

"Thanks Neji!" he yelled in a distracted tone as he turned to take off down the hallway toward the back alley of the furthest building from the front office.

Neji didn't follow and Naruto was glad for that and the fact that he miraculously got over the back fence without running into anyone he knew or ending up with any adult witnesses at all. Not that he'd of stopped even if an adult _had_ seen him. He just didn't give a fuck enough to.

It wasn't right – it couldn't be right even though he should have expected it; but the thing on that paper Neji gave him was downright infuriating and a little mindboggling because _how did he not know?_

He took the first bus he could catch straight to the inner city, and he jumped off at the closest stop still being made to an abandoned strip of empty warehouses.

He came here once with Kyuubi – not because he'd been invited, which made it more valuable information – but because he and Haku just happened to be in the car and they needed to stop by 'the warehouse' immediately. They didn't have time to drop them off.

The most blaring thing in his mind kept reverberating in his subconscious and he knew the exchange then had been suspicious.

"_Bring it to the warehouse – why the fuck did you bring it here?"_

_Naruto entered the room just as he spoke and Kyuubi glared with narrowed eyes at him for it – as if it wasn't his home to wander around when he pleased – and Naruto's expression was intent upon hearing Kyuubi's tone._

_Kyuubi handed back a set of car keys roughly to the man before him who took off without hesitation and with a good amount of unease in his features._

Naruto remembered now and now he understood immediately why Kyuubi had been so uneasy then.

_It_ was a car – Naruto was positive; and Kyuubi was afraid he'd be able to recognize it.

He weaved between two familiar buildings and headed toward the one he remembered Kyuubi approaching and he wasn't surprised to find a padlock on it.

But his adrenalin and the eighteen pound rock he found on the ground near the east side of the building didn't make it too hard to completely destroy.

The wheels on the track screeched as he carelessly threw open the wide, warehouse door and all he could see was X-J-3-7-R-2-5; the same combination on the same car that housed the hit man who shot Haku.

In the poor lighting, he could only barely make out the shape of the car, but he wasn't concerned with that. His eyes were _glued_ to that blaring white license plate and the seven very distinguishable characters engraved upon it.

Kyuubi.

Kyuubi killed Haku! _For no reason!_

Or maybe there was a reason – he wasn't sure which idea scared him more; if Kyuubi had a point to make, Naruto had missed it. But maybe that was his plan. If Kyuubi had an ulterior motive, Naruto didn't know about it and hadn't even suspected it. What else was he oblivious to? It felt unfavorable to be in this position and the feeling was only growing.

He was on guard instantly because for all he knew, Kyuubi was watching him figure this all out. It wouldn't be the first time Kyuubi slipped around the city in his shadow and completely out of sight; he wouldn't deny at all that Kyuubi was intelligent enough to do it. At some point in Kyuubi's young life, someone was probably mentioning what a shame it was that such a smart boy was heading down such a bad path.

Any second he could emerge from any shadow surrounding him and he did the first thing that his instincts told him to.

He slipped into the shadows against the wall closest to him and watched his surroundings closely as his eyes adjusted to the poor lighting inside the small warehouse – there were no windows, just the area of light where the warehouse door was halfway open. It made the shadows darker and the light seem brighter.

The car took up most of the room but his eyes slowly allowed him to stare at something other than the license plate and he realized what exactly this warehouse was used for.

_Millions_ of dollars were stashed here – in wads of cash and kilos of cocaine. Kyuubi was expanding his horizons.

And he had to get the fuck out of here.

Just as the thought passed through his mind, the screech of tires from down the street reached his ears and he knew no one drove past here without a reason – of course there would be an alarm on a place so important – so he hurried to the exit and slipped past the warehouse facing the one he was in, squinting against the light as he ran down the side of the building and disappearing into the maze of alleyways and abandoned structures.

The car screeched toward the warehouse from the north of where he was and he ran west to dodge being spotted as he looped around to stay directly behind them. _Always run the opposite direction. The exact opposite direction_.

Somewhere around three bus stops past his usual, he reminded himself that he was fine – there was no way he'd be followed and he slowed to a walk as he prepared to exit the alley he'd been sneaking through to the main street.

There was the stop for the 82, the bus he needed to take to head back toward Sasuke's neighborhood – toward the school he just ditched.

But he didn't wait at it; he didn't even glance toward it – he was way too furious and it was hitting him now that the danger had passed that _Kyuubi fucking killed Haku!_

It didn't take him long to get back to his neighborhood and he was pushing through his apartment door, meeting Kyuubi's gaze within what felt like moments.

"I want to get emancipated."

Kyuubi stared at him oddly, eyebrows furrowed at the request.

"What?"

"I want to get emancipated!"

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"You're a dual offender who got out of prison on parole in under three months on a double-felony," Naruto criticized in an incriminating tone, "You have a lawyer. And not some _shitty_ public defender–!"

"I had _terrific_ behavior," Kyuubi compromised easily, his posture facetious as he shrugged, palms facing the ceiling lazily.

"I need your lawyer."

"Give me _one_ good reason why you would need to be emancipated and then tell me why you thought it mattered to me."

"Because I want to drop out of school and I need to make money and you know I could make a lot – for both of us."

Naruto's tone was unwavering and he was one-hundred percent confident.

"You need my lawyer and you need to make money," Kyuubi clarified skeptically, "and you want to make money by selling drugs. And you want to drop out of school."

Kyuubi smirked and then smiled before laughing and Naruto looked completely unimpressed and disinterested; he knew Kyuubi would react this way because Kyuubi had anticipated this day for as long as Naruto could remember – the day Naruto admitted Kyuubi owned him, that he would sell drugs for the rest of his life if Kyuubi told him to. There was no escape.

"Need money to support a habit, Naruto?" Kyuubi mocked through his laughter.

"_Fuck_ you!"

"So just how much do you need to make?" the man continued, his words slightly curved by the smile on his lips.

"Enough to support me and my mom – and she doesn't work anymore," it was a demand; not a request, "You can use the apartment, whatever, I don't give two shits who you bring over here – but none of you touches her: ever again."

Kyuubi smiled and laughed a little, eyes downcast as he realized what Naruto was asking for – what he was willing to do by the force of his tone. That was a lot of money he was talking about.

"Uzumaki Naruto are you selling your soul to the devil?"

Naruto's gaze shifted toward the man as his downcast stare rose to meet Naruto's frustrated eyes.

"I don't really give a _shit_ what you think–!"

"_Ok_, _ok_," Kyuubi began through an amused and highly anticipated grin as he stopped Naruto before he could plow on, "I hear you loud and clear," he continued slowly, "But you should already know that these things don't work no strings attached; I can't just let anyone run around with a good amount of my money. I need smart people and I need reliable people because smart people don't get caught and reliable people don't snitch."

"Well I've already been caught so I guess that's that," Naruto bit back with an irritated glare toward no particular corner of the room.

"Doesn't count – you were, what, twelve?"

"Fourteen you fuck–!"

"_Fourteen_," Kyuubi interrupted with a correction to his tone as he cut through Naruto's voice like butter, "Everyone's stupid at fourteen. But you also didn't _snitch_ at fourteen which is pretty impressive."

But Naruto didn't meet his gaze because he knew Kyuubi thought he was a faithless little shit; there was no way he could _actually_ trust Naruto. Not after–

"And then, you go around orchestrating the kind of shit that gave me a double felony and put me in _fucking_ prison – how long did it take to save up that much coke anyway?"

Naruto didn't respond, eyes shifting toward where the wall met the floor.

"So how far are you willing to go to prove you won't do it again?"

Blue eyes finally lifted to meet Kyuubi's and he understood exactly what his tone meant.

"You have one month–" the man began as he pulled a gun out from a hidden place behind his back near his hip.

Kyuubi went to hand him the metal weapon but Naruto avoided it adamantly and Kyuubi shot him an expectant look.

"I don't want my evidence all over your murder weapon. Who the fuck knows how many rounds you've sunk into a person with that–"

"That's a fantastic idea," the man interrupted as he pulled back encouragingly, "Buy your own fucking gun. Or kill him another way! I really don't give a fuck. Thirty days – get rid of Suigetsu, or I'll put a bullet in both your heads."

That was about when the impact of Kyuubi's words hit him and he backpedaled away from his rising temper while his mind reeled, jaw halfway slack as he stood there motionlessly; the threat didn't bother him – Kyuubi threatened to kill him in almost every conversation they had. But kill Suigetsu? Was he serious? He couldn't be serious.

"Why-why Suigetsu?"

"You know, I heard you were pretty fond of that foster family of yours."

Naruto tightened his jaw and he felt a surge of nausea because Kyuubi had never treaded there before and it left him overwhelmingly uneasy. Kyuubi made empty threats – but he made a lot of liable threats too.

"Leave them out of it."

"Then shut up and do what I ask and we won't have any problems," the man finalized in an airy tone.

Things were getting a lot more complicated than they'd been in the past.

"Thirty days starts when I'm emancipated."

Kyuubi lifted his chin slightly and smirked but didn't respond otherwise and Naruto knew that by his lack of argument that he had agreed to his terms.

"My lawyer will contact you. The second you're emancipated, you come back here. Or I'll just have him revoke it the second you drop out. And then you'll be stuck in a group home with zero freedom and with even less of a future than you have now."

Naruto left it there without any further conditions to demand as he turned for the door and left without looking back.

He'd better think of something because right now he had no idea what to do.

He couldn't have taken back his sincerity no matter what – one, because it just didn't work that way; Kyuubi wouldn't let him say no. He warned him so beforehand. Plus, if Naruto himself wasn't pursuing the order of 'get rid of Suigetsu', then someone else would be. This was his only opportunity to spare Suigetsu's life.

He had to figure something out. It started with Haku and he was going to end it before it got to Suigetsu.

He had to.

oOo

It didn't take long to receive his emancipation; less time than he'd anticipated in fact – Kyuubi's lawyer mentioned something about being in foster care and not needing three weeks' notice on seeking emancipation because of it. So his sloppy custody actually helped his case for once.

Plus, Naruto was the type of person who could make anyone believe in his cause; three minutes at the podium had the judge leaning heavily in his favor – his lawyer looked pleased with his testimony. Naruto's success was his success.

It was once he got the emancipation that he wasn't sure what to do.

How was he supposed to tell the Uchihas that he was divorcing himself from the family?

He couldn't. He downright couldn't and he wasn't going to, especially with his detached and distant attitude toward everyone around him lately. He left a short apology and a very censored explanation with a copy of all the papers they needed on his pillow and slipped out his window, into the backyard and out to the street through the side-yard.

It was still dark outside – it was just as Fugaku was getting up for work and Mikoto was beginning breakfast; the sun would rise soon but not until he was to the main road where he was meeting Gaara.

Headlights coming up behind caught his attention and he moved away from the sidewalk a few steps as the car pulled over next to him; it was one of two people.

But he moved back toward the car when he saw the person at the wheel and he smiled in greeting as he reached for the passenger's seat.

"Thanks for coming, Gaara. I owe you, seriously," Naruto hailed as he got in and shut the passenger's side door before pulling on his seatbelt.

"You owe me nothing," the red head assured, somewhat sternly, as he took off from the gutter with a quick glance over his shoulder to check for traffic.

"No wait, go right at the light," Naruto corrected before Gaara could switch lanes, "I need to stop by my school."

Gaara couldn't help but notice that he wasn't in uniform – which meant he didn't intend to stay for long.

They pulled into the parking lot closest to the front office and Naruto promised he'd be back soon before exiting the car and heading for the only building that would be unlocked this early.

When he entered, the secretary looked up from her front desk with furrowed eyebrows as he approached.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing here this early?"

"Can I talk to Tsunade-sama?"

The secretary looked a little unsure but she shrugged halfway and pointed toward the hall that led to the wall of office doors.

He knocked but didn't wait before entering and opened the door in time to see the woman pull her face off the desk before her and she shot Naruto a condemning glare that dared him to say something.

"I had a late night," she explained as she motioned for him to come in. He entered and shut the door behind him, "What time is it? I feel like I just put my head down," she mumbled as she glanced around for her clock. Her eyes found it and her gaze grew unimpressed because she literally had just put it down, "What are you doing here so early?"

"I'm dropping out."

Tsunade stared at him for a long moment, lips parted in shock and eyebrows furrowed as she processed the words for a moment.

"No you're not–!"

"I'm not asking," he finalized in a steady tone, "I'm telling you – so that the Uchiha's don't have to pay any more for my tuition than they already wasted on it."

His eyes were downcast and he avoided conveying any emotion at all.

"I'm not letting you," Tsunade shot back as she crossed her arms over her chest in a challenging sort of way.

She didn't like the way he smiled toward the floor in reply.

"It doesn't matter what you say, I emancipated myself so you can't do a fucking thing about it."

Her eyebrows furrowed – she didn't know that; that changed things.

His eyes finally lifted to meet hers and she wished they hadn't – he wasn't the same child she met just before his sixteenth birthday. His features were mostly impassive but Tsunade saw a vengeance suppressed beneath his placid façade and she wondered who he was after because there must be someone nurturing his vendetta.

"Naruto."

He froze with his hand on the doorknob of her office but didn't give her any further recognition that he was listening.

"Whatever you're planning – just…really think it over. Make sure you're doing the right thing."

He opened the door and exited with a very small edge of frustration in the way he closed the door behind him but didn't respond otherwise and Tsunade felt a wave of unease plow over her.

oOo

Naruto stood before his apartment door for the first time since he confronted Kyuubi about being emancipated; it was an understatement to say he was uneasy – he wasn't entirely positive that he was making the right choice, but he was _more_ sure about this one than any other option he laid out for himself.

He spent most of the day with Gaara before approaching this moment because he still hadn't seen his mother since the night after open house at the school; he was so nervous.

But the thought of his mother fueled his veins with a profound determination – she dealt with far worse than him; and she had no foster family to escape to.

He had to take care of this. And he was going to.

So with resolve in every aspect of his features, he unlocked and opened the door, and stood straight before Kyuubi with no fear, for his mother's sake _and_ for himself; because this was for both of them.

"I dropped out."

"Perfect," Kyuubi claimed with a charming type of smile, "I think I recall saying you eventually would."

Naruto's lips parted as he realized that yeah, he had; that night he almost killed him – it was difficult to remember anything until after a few days in the hospital. But hearing it again now brought the memory up as clear as day and he grit his teeth from the terms he'd forgotten he agreed to. If he remembered correctly, somewhere within Kyuubi's narrative that night, he'd asserted 'I own you' at least once, and Naruto dropping out of school to come here and face Kyuubi was absolute proof that it was true. He'd managed to get Naruto to drop out and he hardly had to do a thing except sit back and watch.

So what if Kyuubi tricked him – again; he couldn't take it back so there were no regrets: just a lingering urge to smite Kyuubi.

"Ok, Naruto. I'll bring you up a step, you can deal coke."

"Just like that," Naruto clarified in an unconvinced tone, "Just like that you trust me."

Naruto had every right to be skeptical. It was absolutely insane.

"Oh believe me I don't trust you. But I do want you dealing for me – enough to overlook it."

"Fair enough."

"Thirty days starts then."

"Fine."

"And one more thing," he continued with a coy smile that had blonde eyebrows furrowed in unease by the tone of his voice. He glanced down as Kyuubi handed him a half smoked blunt – it _looked_ like weed and smelt like it; but Naruto knew there was probably more to it.

Still, he couldn't say no, especially since he was trying to prove his loyalty.

When he hit it, he didn't hold the smoke for long before passing it back with a betrayed glare because he was right, it _was_ weed, but something else too, something horribly bitter that left a toxic residue coating the inside of his mouth and he wished he could linger just a moment longer within the second before everything around him was twisted into some sort of indistinguishable blur of sound and distortion and he rubbed his eyes in a last ditch attempt to make it go away, but, even eyes closed, he didn't feel better or forget the delusion marring his cognition.

He couldn't just sleep it off like most of the drugs he used.

"Fuck you," he breathed toward Kyuubi who smiled at his apparent distaste for the drug. He felt horribly inebriated and his knees hit the ground before he even knew he was falling.

Kyuubi caught him before his upper body hit the ground and dragged him over to the couch; he felt so heavy – he couldn't really move on his own. He couldn't feel much of anything. Kyuubi's hand was wrapped tightly around his arm, but he couldn't feel it, or the couch behind him, and everything around the room was distorted and un-proportional. The doors and windows shrunk to the size of his thumb and the walls seemed to tower up toward the ceiling, so far away that distinguishing it from the walls seemed impossible.

He was _trapped_. Trapped and paranoid, and he wished he could move.

Sounds were rarely distinguishable from each other anymore and all he could really hear were the irrational and incomplete delusions plaguing his cognition. He felt like he watched a lot of what did and a lot of what didn't happen from outside his body or right next to it or slightly inside of it but mostly out. He remembered getting a tattoo; Kyuubi called it part of his initiation and he glanced around to see a few of them flash the same tattoo imprinted on each of their lower abdomens – the same swirly tattoo now jotted in permanently to his skin by the only person who wasn't smoking tonight; the person who owned a tattoo shop – and that was Kimimaro.

Although, he couldn't tell if he was remembering it, thinking about something that was just about to happen, or if it was happening now; it was strange and he felt disoriented.

Still, he knew he didn't want a tattoo, even when he was this fucked up, so he struggled, but it was sort of pathetic, considering it only took Kyuubi to hold him down – but to be fair, he was out of his fucking mind on _something_, he wasn't even sure what yet.

He had no idea how much time elapsed before he woke up in his bedroom, in a slightly clearer state of mind – his cognition still felt a little foggy.

At least he was in his bed; part of him had expected to end up in a gutter somewhere – so the fact that he was ok, other than the unexpected tattoo, was a little surprising to say the least, and he wasn't sure how to feel about it.

It was bandaged, and when he lifted the corner to gaze underneath, he noticed a shiny gel coating the skin beneath and he patted it back down gently with furrowed eyebrows. Why'd they bother dressing it? They'd never done anything like this before and they'd done far worse than give him a tattoo in the past.

Actually, now that he had it and looked at it in a clearer state of mind, he didn't mind the tattoo much. It would probably be useful to prove his affiliation at some point – which could also condemn him should he meet an enemy.

His bedroom door opened just as he was pulling his shirt down and he shot Kyuubi a mean glare as he entered the room.

"You could have just told me I had to get a tattoo – you didn't have to drug me; I probably would have done it," he criticized as he sat up slowly. It was very tender – especially where his scars from the hospital and the tattoo overlapped.

"Well did it hurt?"

Naruto froze for a moment, gaze shifting away and eyebrows furrowing slightly as he thought about it. Actually, he couldn't remember feeling anything – just the anxiety of the horrible delusion warping his mind.

He shook his head and didn't lift his gaze.

"You're welcome."

Naruto refused to believe Kyuubi did that _for_ him and he shifted his gaze further away as he downright ignored the red haired man.

"Your mother's making breakfast."

Blue eyes darted up to meet Kyuubi's with a vindictive malice and he hoped his message set in because he wasn't happy.

"That's a pretty mean face to give to a person like me for the situation you're in," Kyuubi reminded while Naruto dropped his gaze with gritted teeth, "Now get up and go see her. She's been bitching about you since you went missing."

Naruto was up and darting past Kyuubi before he finish speaking and he rounded the kitchen entryway to see his mother standing at the stove; Kyuubi wasn't lying. And he felt a little breathless with how ok she looked.

But _he_ probably looked ok too from the outside where his scars were covered up and he wondered if she really was as ok as she appeared; she seemed to be as clean as the day he disappeared.

"Mom!"

"Naruto?"

It was only seconds before she pulled him into a hug and she held him tightly.

"Naruto where have you been? You've been gone for _weeks!_"

Naruto glanced over toward Kyuubi as he walked past the entry way on his way to the couch. She must not have known he went into foster care.

Kushina pulled him toward the sliding glass door to their small balcony and Naruto wondered why she needed to get out of earshot of him – he didn't want to think about it because it probably meant Kyuubi was manipulating her just as bad as he was manipulating Naruto himself.

"Did he hurt you?" Naruto asked, before she could say the words lingering on the back of her tongue.

"No, actually, he's been…different lately. Naruto where have you been?" she inquired, the concern clear in her tone.

"I'm sorry," he apologized softly, eyebrows furrowed at the amount of anguish he must have put his mother through, "I was in foster care, I'm sorry. I – I messed up and I didn't want you to have to deal with it. I'm so sorry."

"I'm your mom, Naruto. It's my job to deal with it, ok? You can come to me when you're in trouble. I was so worried and Kyuubi wouldn't let me come find you. He–"

But she stopped and Naruto shot her an inquiring look.

"What?" he asked, urging her to continue, "What mom? What'd he do?"

"Nothing. It's nothing for you to worry about."

"Mom–!"

"I'm ending the discussion," she stated firmly, earning a silence of acknowledgement in her wake, "I'm glad your home baby. Breakfast is almost ready."

Naruto watched her reopen the sliding glass door before exiting the patio and returning to the kitchen before letting his gaze drop in guilt and shame; he'd rather his mother be angry with him for getting half the truth over upset and sorry if she knew everything he went through while he was missing – Kyuubi threatened him not to talk about it and a good part of him just plain didn't want to even without the threat, so he kept it to himself.

It just sucked that it was at the expense of his reputation in the eyes of his mother.

He reentered the kitchen and shut the sliding door behind him before pulling up a stool to sit at the island where he was sitting directly in front of his mother who stood at the stove with several burners cooking the breakfast she was previously referring to.

She turned and opened a cabinet to grab a spice and Naruto saw the abundance of food and Kushina turned in time to see his furrowed eyebrows and puzzled features; what the hell was Kyuubi doing?

"It's been like this for a while," she mentioned softly while reaching up to grab a plate to set down in front of him and utensils from the drawer to her left to accompany it.

Naruto didn't respond. He just gazed toward the entryway to the living room where Kyuubi was lying on the couch, watching whatever garbage was on the television before him.

He must have been holding up his end of the bargain and Naruto wasn't sure whether to feel surprised or not.

"You'd better eat everything you can, you've lost weight, and you're going to get scrawny if you don't watch it," the woman warned as she piled food onto his plate in generous amounts.

Naruto wasn't complaining, not even when his claim that he was too full to eat any more fell on deaf ears while his mother continued to pile on more food; and it wasn't long before he cleaned another full plate.

"I'm leaving," Kyuubi announced from the entryway before gazing directly at Naruto who stared right back, "I'll be back for you later tonight."

Kushina's gaze shot up to stare at Naruto when the statement triggered a thought and she stared at him inquiringly while he avoided her eyes.

"Why aren't you in school?" the woman realized aloud when she heard the door shut behind Kyuubi as he left and Naruto froze, features sobering somewhat fearfully as he finally lifted his gaze to meet hers.

"I – I, uh…"

Wow, it was a lot harder to admit than he'd expected and he looked away when the angry heat in his mother's eyes grew too painful to look at.

"You _what_, Naruto?"

"I dropped out."

She slammed the utensil in her hand down on the kitchen counter and Naruto tensed in fear of the scolding coming his way.

"If you have a tattoo on your stomach I swear to god Naruto–!"

"Mom just back off ok?" he defended as he jumped off the barstool to back away from her as she approached him quickly.

But she caught him as soon as he hit the wall he was backpedaling toward and she grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it up far enough to see the bottom of the bandage covering his abdomen.

She knew what it meant.

"Damn it Naruto!"

"Mom, just hear me out."

"What were you thinking? You could have done anything with an education from that school!"

"You're not working anymore, right?"

There was a lull of silence and Kushina stared at her son with furrowed eyebrows as the message behind his words registered more profoundly with her.

"Naruto it wasn't that bad, not bad enough for you to throw your life away–!"

"Mom what you had to do is worse than anything Kyuubi can do to me! You took care of me for seventeen years and now I'm grown up enough to take care of myself so let me do this; because I _can_ – and things are better, right? I can do this, mom, just let me."

"You're going to get yourself killed."

"I know what I'm doing."

"He lets you think that at first," Kushina assured with a steadfast nature to her tone that downright admitted she knew from very personal experience, "But he really doesn't trust you at all. I really wish you didn't do this Naruto."

"I already did it. You know I can't take it back no matter what."

Tears poured down the red haired woman's face as she shook her head slightly, eyes drifting away elsewhere in her disappointment.

"I'm so sorry; I never wanted this for you," she cried in a voice torn with so much regret, it was difficult for Naruto to listen without his chest aching in guilt, "Maybe we should have tried being homeless before I turned to Kyuubi; people manage, right? We could have too."

"As if we had a chance either way mom; eventually we'd face problems there too and we'd be wondering if you should have tried what we're doing right now. We were just fucked no matter what. But I promise I have a solid plan. Please trust me," he pleaded with a genuine honesty in his tone and posture.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she shifted her gaze to his and she contemplated everything he said. It was true, what was done, was done. Naruto couldn't take back that he gained ranks with Kyuubi – people didn't just leave after knowing everything Naruto did; especially not after the tattoo.

She had very little control over the situation now; Naruto had done something she couldn't reverse, no matter what.

"I promise I'll put my faith in you if you promise to come to me if you realize you need help; it's a team effort, ok Naruto? You have to rely on me a little, too. If you're in too deep, you promise me you'll come to me and we'll figure something out together, ok?"

She stared at him with furrowed eyebrows and a determination to make him understand and he stared back empathetically because that was fair enough.

"Ok, I understand. I promise."

oOo

Kyuubi came to get him later that night like he'd promised, and they were on their way to meet with a potential buyer with Zabuza and Kimimaro. He wasn't sure what to expect, but Kyuubi mentioned, several times, the importance of this deal.

Naruto understood why after they arrived at the warehouse where they were meeting and he saw just how much coke was in the trunk of the car they were driving after the warehouse door was closed behind them. They weren't selling to a single person for personal use; they were supplying a dealer, and a very high profile one at that.

The negotiation was uncomfortable. The price they asked for was high to their buyer and he seemed agitated that they wouldn't budge. Kyuubi let the air from his lungs out in a breath of frustration and he shifted his gaze toward Naruto – Kyuubi knew Naruto was smart. He was unpredictable and good enough with words to sell just about anything. He had a posture to his message and it was difficult to disagree with him.

And he wanted him to speak up.

"Look, we don't have time for this shit. Find a new supplier and pay ten less a gram cut with cornstarch and sugar; that's fine with us. And then when you grow a pair and realize you and your clients like being high longer than fifteen minutes, come find us; but until then, we have other shit to do," Naruto resolved as he turned to leave in a breeze of disinterest, the rest of them following suit, and Kyuubi with a wide smirk.

"_Wait_."

The group turned and gazed expectantly and Kyuubi stepped forward to finish the negotiation in private now that the terms had been agreed upon.

Kyuubi was thrilled; by the time they got back to their car and were driving away with a trunk full of cash, the man was almost praising Naruto and it was strange to be on this friendly of terms with the person who used to cause him more anguish than any other living being.

This is why Kyuubi wanted him dealing – why Kyuubi so easily let him join his ranks; Naruto wasn't bad at lying to people. But even so, he'd never stop hating how easily he held on to the strings Kyuubi was puppeteering him around with.

But he had to; he had to act completely loyal and he had to do exactly as Kyuubi said because he needed Kyuubi to be relaxed enough to let Naruto pour him a drink because that was when Naruto would have an opening.

It was eleven days – nineteen before his deadline to kill Suigetsu – before Kyuubi became careless enough to tell Naruto to pour him a drink and the second he was told to bring them shot glasses from the kitchen, he grabbed the opportunity with eager and nimble fingers.

He poured them drinks throughout the night and it was on their last round of shots that he did it; when he knew they were all too intoxicated to notice.

"You know what, Naruto? You've already proven yourself more useful than Kidomaru. You've closed a deal that was half of what he's made this whole year and you're probably still applying medicine to your tattoo because it's so new," Kyuubi joked loudly, earning a chorus of laughter from every occupant of the room other than Naruto and Kidomaru, and the man threw back another shot while the rest of the inhabitants of the room followed suit and Naruto watched with intent eyes as he slowly became more and more lethargic as he set down the shot glass on the side table to his right.

It was only minutes before he went completely slack against the back of the couch and several eyes glanced over toward the red haired man with furrowed eyebrows.

"Is he that drunk?"

But there was another thud as someone else hit the ground and the rest of them started dropping like flies while Naruto sat at the center of it, quiet and patient until he was the only one left conscious.

He didn't waste any time. He grabbed an empty backpack from his room before leaving for the warehouse where Kyuubi stashed his money, surplus of drugs, and spare car; he knew he had to hurry because he only had a few hours and he needed several resources he could find there.

When he arrived, he smashed the padlock with a large rock much like he did last time and threw open the door with little caution because he didn't care if he set off any alarms since everyone who would have heard them was unconscious on the floor in his living room.

The doors to the car were unlocked and the keys for the ignition sat in the cup holder. It was just too perfect so he popped the trunk and started throwing all the money stashed within the warehouse into the trunk of the car before stuffing the backpack with a good amount of cash and tossing it in the passenger's seat.

He didn't have a driver's license; he also prayed there were no warrants out for this license plate because he didn't want to get pulled over and have to explain why he had a couple million dollars in the trunk of a car that didn't belong to him.

For his inexperience, he wasn't bad at driving – it wasn't as difficult as he'd anticipated and he made it to his destination just fine and he was knocking loudly at Gaara's apartment door before he knew it.

The door clicked as the deadbolt was unlatched and there was a creak as the door was opened.

"Naruto?" his red haired companion questioned in a groggy voice, eyes squinting slightly from the light of the hallway that his tired eyes weren't used to yet, "It's something like four-thirty in the morning."

"Gaara, I need your help; this will literally be the last favor I ask of you, I'm serious."

"The last? What're you talking about?"

Naruto explained his situation and he summed up his plan, and he requested for him to hold on to the money for a while until he found a need for it; and he urged him to use as much as him and his siblings needed.

Gaara accepted without hesitation and they grabbed several bags to put the money in. Naruto thanked fate for the darkness covering them; it would look suspicious what they were doing out of the trunk of his car.

But they were done quickly and Naruto thanked Gaara one last time before taking his leave as he moved the car down the street until it was parked on the side of the road just before his apartment door.

He reentered the apartment and not one of the men strewn across the floor had moved since his past departure. He grabbed each limp body and dragged it to the kitchen where it was hidden from the view of the living area and the front door.

And finally, he approached his mother's bedroom door and he opened it gently as he entered her room; she was sleeping soundly and he felt guilty for waking her when he did.

"What is it, baby?" she asked patiently as she sat up tiredly.

"Mom we have to go. Just trust me, ok? It's part of that plan your investing your faith in."

The urgency in his voice was enough to startle the sleep out of the corners of her eyes and she felt very awake very suddenly.

"Why? Naruto what are you planning? Where are we going?"

"We're going to the train station. Pack some things you need; we're not coming back here," he advised while she stood anxiously, eyebrows furrowed and features uneasy.

"Why?"

"I'll explain in the car!" he continued urgently before grabbing a suitcase from the closet and throwing it open on the bed, "We have to hurry, I don't have much time."

"Car? Where the _hell_ did you get a car?"

But she was packing so it was enough to let Naruto know that she had heard him and she was working with him so he let her plow on as she scolded him half-heartedly.

They soon got in the car and Naruto took her to the closest train station he knew of and she glanced over toward him when he made no move to turn the car off or unbuckle his seatbelt.

"Aren't you coming?"

"I have to finish something," he admitted in a sobering tone that earned him an uneasy look.

"You better tell me right now what's going on."

"Mom you have to go somewhere far away – really far," he explained as he grabbed the backpack under her feet and set it on her lap, "And don't use your name. There's half a million dollars here–"

"Half a million dollars? Where the hell did you get half a million dollars? And what the hell am I gonna do if I'm caught with that much money?"

"You won't get caught. It's in hundreds and it weighs about ten pounds; you're taking the train so they won't search your bags, just grab a hundred out now for your ticket so they won't see the rest. Mom, you need to get out of here. I'll come find you soon–"

"How will you find me Naruto? I won't be using my name," she rationalized in an anxious and blatant tone.

"I'm resourceful mom, come on, give me some credit. It might take me a little while but I'll find you."

"Promise me you will."

"Of course, I love you mom. Everything's going to be ok, I promise. But we're running out of time. You have to go now, or this will all be pointless."

She popped the door open and grabbed her suitcase out of the trunk before circling around to the driver's side door where Naruto exited the car to meet her embrace as she held him closely to her and she cried a little but reigned in her composure quickly.

"I love you, Naruto. You be careful, _please_. Make it back to me in one piece."

"I will," he promised, before she stepped back to let him reenter the car as she took off toward the station with one last wave over her shoulder.

Naruto took off once more for his apartment; once inside, he grabbed Kyuubi's unconscious form and dragged him outside where he laid him across the back seat of the car – he was lucky enough that it was still dark and he estimated he had about half an hour left before daybreak began to peek over the horizon.

But half an hour was more than enough time for him to arrive where he needed to, especially since he had a car.

He stopped before an abandoned apartment building on a shady block that reminded him a lot of his own and he dragged Kyuubi inside to the first room he could break into. It was a single room with three doors in all, one to the bathroom, one that exited to the hallway of doors and a second that exited to the small balcony at the back of the apartment. He tossed Kyuubi's dead weight down on the couch and made sure both doors and each window was locked before returning to the unconscious man and spending a small amount of time tying him down tight enough so he wouldn't be able to escape or struggle enough and give himself suspicious bruises.

If he wanted to do this and get away with it, he had to do it right and every detail to murder counted.

It was several hours before Kyuubi even twitched but when he finally did open his eyes, Naruto was there, and he gazed down at him impassively.

The man came to quickly after that and jerked against the restraints holding him down to the heavy couch he sat tied upon.

"Don't worry," the blonde breathed as the man yelled something heavily muffled by the hand towel shoved into his mouth and held in place by a thin rope, "It won't last long. I'll kill you momentarily – I promise."

For the first time in his life, Naruto saw fear flash behind Kyuubi's eyes and he turned to face him more completely, an intrigued glaze to his eyes as his lips curved slightly – it all felt so liberating.

"But there's something I want to say first."

Kyuubi just stared at him fearfully, because he literally could do no more than that – and the knowledge was frightening.

"_I don't belong to you!_" he yelled, the frustration clear in his tone; it was something he probably wanted to say for a long time, "After today, I'll go wherever I want and I'll do whatever I want; and you? You won't tell me or my mom what to do ever again. Because you'll be dead," he assured in a horribly bitter tone, "Idon'tbelong to you; I never once felt that way – and any situation where you thought I might have, was just a trap to bring us to where we are now. I bet you feel pretty stupid huh? It only took me eleven days to trick you – nineteen less than you gave me."

He pulled on a pair of disposable gloves and smirked at the man's displeasure for it.

"I don't want to leave any evidence," he explained for the man, as if he didn't already know it. It felt good treating Kyuubi like he was stupid – the same way he used to treat Naruto.

He looked as if he attempted to struggle – attempted to escape: to do _something_.

"Were you curious as to why your muscle control hasn't returned? It's because you've overdosed on your muscle relaxer which, _conveniently_, you have a prescription for," the blonde explained as he pulled out an orange bottle of a half-empty, and very legal prescription for the person restrained to the couch, "I actually never would have gotten into prescription forgery if it wasn't for you forcing me into dealing so you can kick yourself for that one. Don't worry – absolutely no one is watching so feel free to submit to the urge to cry or pray or whatever it is you feel like doing before you die."

He tossed the bottle of pills onto the couch and it bounced into the corner opposite from the one Kyuubi was sitting on.

"That's for the police," he explained as he motioned toward the bottle as the rattling subsided when it stopped moving, "So they know why it's in your bloodstream on the tox report of your autopsy. Don't worry, they won't check the prescription – it's irrelevant."

The man stared back incredulously at him, unable to comprehend how far ahead he'd planned all this out.

"Well let's do the damn thing then, shall we?" he asked as he turned toward the table he'd left the syringe on, "I would clean this, but I figure, what the hell, right? Who cares about transmitting disease at this point?"

He slid the thin strip of metal down from the bend in his arm several centimeters before pushing forward, breaking the skin with finesse as he fished roughly for where he wanted to be. He felt the soft pop as he broke through a vein and he pushed a generous amount swiftly with a rough shove to the plunger.

Kyuubi's eyes rolled slightly before the pain anchored him back from cloud nine and he groaned, arching against his restraints.

"It hurts, doesn't it? The smooth muscles lining your gastric tract are spasming, in case you were wondering what the pain in your stomach is," he continued before cutting the restraints and hiding them away in his backpack. Kyuubi wasn't capable of independent movement at this point.

The rush hit him and Naruto hoped he enjoyed it while it lasted because it was only going to become painful and uncomfortable afterward.

He turned and grabbed the man's right hand and guided it to the injection site on his other arm. He cupped Kyuubi's fingers around the glass tube of the needle before placing the man's thumb on the plunger and pressing forward, emptying the remaining contents of the syringe into his bloodstream.

Naruto released his hold and Kyuubi's arm fell limply across his stomach as it released the needle.

His chest fell and didn't rise and Naruto gazed at the needle still embedded in the dying man's arm.

Three minutes passed easily but he waited five just to be safe before he let himself accept it.

Kyuubi was dead.

And it felt good.

"Naruto?"

Naruto felt his blood grow cold – like it was suddenly winter and a brisk sheet of air hit him from behind. He turned to the doorway, eyebrows furrowed in disbelief as his gaze fell upon Suigetsu standing just outside the room.

"How the hell did you find this place?" Naruto breathed in distrust as he watched Suigetsu examine the scene before him.

"Naruto what the hell's going on?" the blue haired man asked, eyes trained on Kyuubi's unmoving form, "Naruto is he dead?"

"Don't," Naruto warned but Suigetsu ignored his warning as he took off for the body on the couch and Naruto intercepted him quickly, tackling him to the floor before he could get close, "I won't let you interfere!" he exclaimed in a determined tone as he wrestled with the person beneath him.

"Interfere? Naruto did you do this?" Suigetsu questioned with difficulty as he struggled with the person above him; Naruto was surprisingly strong for his size – Suigetsu would admit that he was having a difficult time getting free, but he was getting there.

But Naruto didn't respond as he stilled suddenly and his gaze made Suigetsu pause too as he watched the blonde stare straight ahead toward a dark area of the room where there used to be a window, beyond the bar separating the kitchen and living room and a fearful realization washed over his features.

"Suigetsu, there's a SWAT team here," he whispered as he stopped moving completely.

"I know," Suigetsu breathed back in a tone of some sort of apology that earned him a gaze of disbelief. Naruto stared down at him in a way that was so foreign it was painful and Suigetsu looked away.

"Suigetsu, how did you find this place?" Naruto asked again, as something disturbing began to come together in his mind.

"Naruto…" he trailed off apologetically. Naruto's fists slammed down on his chest and he curled his fingers into the fabric of his shirt in frustration.

"Is that a vest, Suigetsu?" he screamed when his hands hit the solidity of the bulletproof vest beneath the man's shirt.

He could hear several safeties clicking off and Suigetsu waved a hand to gesture for the backup to back off.

But the signal alone was enough to confirm Naruto's suspicions and he pulled back like Suigetsu had burned him.

"I can't–" he began, his voice filled with disbelief, "_You're an undercover!_" he accused in skepticism.

"I've been tracking him by a GPS he doesn't know he has on him – that's how I found this place. We thought – we thought this was drug related."

Naruto rolled off him quickly and backed away while Suigetsu stood too.

"Naruto – listen to me!" Suigetsu urged as he raised submissive hands in an attempt to get him to stop backing away slowly, "You can't get away; just don't even try. You'll get yourself killed. Naruto–" he paused momentarily as his voice lowered and his tone sobered, "Listen to me, Naruto. If you cooperate, I can help you with this. But you need to come with me–"

"Why should I listen to you! All you've done is lie to me!"

"He's unarmed! Do _not_ shoot!" Suigetsu yelled as Naruto tossed his backpack to the side as he darted for the only exit that Suigetsu wasn't blocking. But his shoulder slammed into the old, creaking wood of the dead-bolted door and he slammed a frustrated fist into the wall with a breathy '_Shit!_' when he remembered the extent he took to make sure it was locked.

His wrist was grabbed and yanked behind his back and he couldn't believe Suigetsu was arresting him – he felt _completely_ betrayed.

So he twisted and jerked and ended up face down on the linoleum floor while Suigetsu finished cuffing him and he curled his shaking fingers in some sort of attempt to ease his riotous behavior; this situation could _only_ get worse. He was _fucked_. He still had the restraints in his backpack, and once they were found, it wouldn't be difficult to piece it together. There was that one point where personnel amongst a crime scene had that mental trial over the evidence they found and it wasn't difficult to see that not one of them passed up the opportunity to shoot him that same, condemning glare – especially after someone rushed over to Kyuubi to check his pulse only to declare that he was dead.

Plus, it's not like Naruto planned on lying his way out of this one; he knew what he was getting into and he knew this could be the result – he still didn't regret it because at least his mother got away.

He was lifted off the ground and he shuffled his feet a little to hold his weight as Suigetsu walked them out of the house, where the SWAT team was swarming every corner by now picking up every speck of evidence against him, toward the front yard where police cars lined the street and he was lead to the closest one.

The back door was opened for him and he sat inside, hands finding the small concave in the seat behind his lower back where his cuffed wrists would rest easily while Suigetsu shut the door and opened the passenger's side for himself and got in.

The silence was deafening; it was ringing in Naruto's ears so loud he might have scratched them out just to stay sane, but his wrists remained locked behind his back so he sat still, avoiding Suigetsu's gaze diligently.

"Let's talk."

Naruto shot the man in the front seat a dirty glare for speaking at all.

"Nothing you could ever say could possibly manipulate me, ever again. So don't even try."

"I was never trying to manipulate you! I was trying to manipulate Kyuubi!"

"By manipulating everyone around Kyuubi," Naruto finished for him, "Do you feel safe, Suigetsu? Sitting in the front seat? Does the cage make you feel good?"

"I'm not allowed to sit in the back with any suspects – I'll get my ass handed to me."

"Right. Plus it's not like you have any obligations to a person like _me_ – a _suspect_ – we weren't _actually_ friends; we just pretended to be – only I didn't know we were pretending you _asshole!_"

Yep, Naruto was pretty bitter, but Suigetsu wasn't expecting anything less.

"Look at what Kyuubi's done to you."

Naruto let out a monosyllable form of an ironic laugh in one exhale of disbelief.

"You're so fucking clueless! To compare the decisions that person made to the ones I have is _perfectly_ ignorant! It was either _this_ – or something _you'd_ definitely agree would be way worse. And I also don't care about some subjective person's opinion on what I choose to do, so before you waste your time telling me about why I'm immoral and why it's supposed to matter to me, I'm not listening. I've spent little of my time doing anything _other_ than think about what I was doing; I guess the word you would be familiar with is 'premeditative', and I don't regret it at all."

Suigetsu was a little speechless and Naruto clenched his cuffed fists tighter as he grasped for his composure.

"Why should my name define whether we formed a bond?"

"It's not just your name! It's _everything!_ You completely betrayed me! Look what you did to me! I'm in the back of a cop car and you're in the front seat with the keys to the cuffs on my wrists! _Fuck you!_"

"Naruto, come on, I wasn't after you. I only ever tried to _help_ you. Everything I do is to help people like you–"

"_Fuck you Suigetsu!_ I don't even know you! To me, you're just the undercover police officer that arrested me and put me in prison for the rest of my life: a familiar face with a blank personality. And that other person – Suigetsu…is just something I feel _stupid_ about," he spat out bitterly; Suigetsu could tell – he was unaccustomed to being fooled. And he didn't like it.

"You manipulate people a lot like I do; just because you can make it look more innocent because you're not getting paid for it – just because you can actually trick people into doing things _willingly_ – doesn't make it any different. Step back and take a realistic look at this; I didn't do this to you."

"Not _figuratively_ – _literally_ you handcuffed me and put me in a cop car, asshole – which was only supposed to emphasize on the fact that _you're a cop!_"

It made sense now why Kyuubi wanted him to kill Suigetsu; maybe he'd grown suspicious.

"Naruto you killed someone."

Blue eyes shifted to the opposite side of the car when he failed to strangle down the sob rising in his throat and he hated that he couldn't move his cuffed hands up to wipe away the stupid tears he couldn't hold back no matter how much humanity he pretended not to have.

"_Fuck off_," he breathed as he stemmed his tears swiftly with gritted teeth and furrowed eyebrows, gaze locked out the window, "Police officers kill people all the time. The only difference is that special badge that says it's ok from an untouchable person in a section of the government that doesn't give a shit about any person coming from where I did. So just fuck off."

"Naruto…" the man pleaded in an apologetic tone, "Is that _really_ the way you see law enforcement?"

"Well none of you seemed to manage to do anything helpful toward putting Kyuubi in prison and I'm sick of him using my mom."

"We were _trying!_"

"I'm not talking to you anymore," the blonde assured softly, his tone frustrated and distant.

"Naruto–"

"And you never read me my Miranda's. So when you fill out your police report, you can write down how the suspect utilized his right to remain silent. And nothing else."(1)

Suigetsu stared at him helplessly – he'd seen this side of Naruto; just never from this end. Naruto was exceptionally brilliant and on-the-spot _ingenious_ but he was usually only on a friendly spin with Naruto's whirlwind conversations. To see the way Naruto somehow managed to manipulate every situation in any way he could, never ceased to fascinate Suigetsu; he was always a step behind – everyone was. Naruto was the absolute definition of unpredictable.

It was strange how much it stung; it _wasn't_ strange – Suigetsu just wished it was. Somehow it sounded less horrible.

"Naruto do you want to know the name of the undercover police officer I replaced?"

"No, we're not friends. I don't care."

"You care," the blue haired man assured easily. Just the steadfast nature of his tone was enough to prove it was something worth hearing and Naruto wished he could plug his ears because he felt sick with anticipation.

"I don't want to hear it."

"It was your dad," Suigetsu delivered mercilessly while Naruto shook his head, eyes still steadfast out the window.

"That's _so_ clever," the blonde mocked with a facetious smile as he turned his gaze to meet Suigetsu's, "You sure are resourceful – did you think of that all on your own? To dig into _that_ as your last ditch effort? Let's talk about my dead father, Suigetsu; I would _fucking_ love to!"

"Naruto it's not like that – but I know your dad wouldn't have wanted you to resort to something like this. Every life is important; you're father believed that more than anyone I know."

"Maybe my dad revered life like you say he did, but I guarantee he would put a bullet through Kyuubi's forehead to save a friend's life if that's what it took. There is never any reason I would ever change my mind so save your breath and lock me up because if Kyuubi came back to life, I'd fucking kill him again. _Oh_, and I forgot to tell you the _best_ part – I emancipated myself, so I'm getting tried as an adult."

Suigetsu was speechless – nothing he could say was getting through to him; Naruto was way too angry to have a rational conversation with him and Suigetsu didn't blame him for a second.

He knew this day would come: the day when he revealed he was an undercover and took out a drug dealer – only that drug dealer was supposed to be Kyuubi and he wasn't supposed to be arresting a kid for murder. And his and Naruto's talk was supposed to be a little less…completely horrible.

He wasn't sure Naruto would ever forgive him.

The silence was broken as an officer entered the car at the driver's side and he glanced toward Suigetsu in inquiry.

"How's it going? Did you read him his rights? I know it's been a while," he teased dryly. Naruto was pissed off by him and he grit his teeth as he stared out the window at nothing in particular.

"No…" Suigetsu trailed off distractedly, eyes steadfast on Naruto in an attempt to catch one last glance before Naruto never talked to him again – at least he _assumed_ that's what Naruto had planned; who knows, it could be something much worse.

"Well what the hell, Hozuki?" he inquired skeptically before turning and looking at Naruto over his shoulder, "You have the right–"

But the rest, Naruto didn't hear because his ears were ringing from the way his synapses were firing and he wasn't sure how to tell the difference between sanity and psychosis, but he was almost positive he was teetering a little too close to the unfavorable one and he was only getting closer with every hour longer he went without sleep.

The police station was noisy and cold and it was several, long hours before he was finger printed, searched, stripped, put in a white tee with an orange jumpsuit, the words 'Konoha County Jail' printed across the back, and placed before the phone for his one call.

He stared at the dial pad for a long time – at least it felt like a long time; and he contemplated who he should call. This could be his last time communicating with anyone outside of prison; who knows where he would end up after this?

Sasuke – absolutely he was trying to get in contact with Sasuke.

He couldn't call his mother; it would be a complete waste of his only resource and a very good way to screw her over; Kyuubi's guys would be looking for any way to get back at Naruto and someone would figure out a way to find her if he started contacting her so soon and from prison, where everything was so closely monitored.

And he definitely couldn't call Mikoto or Fugaku. He'd been ungrateful enough toward them; this would be a complete slap in the face. He would rather talk to no one.

He had to talk to Sasuke. But how he was going to do it was the problem; Sasuke rarely answered his phone even if he knew who was calling – he didn't even _consider_ answering unknown or blocked numbers. If it was important, they'd leave a message and he'd call back if necessary; but there would be no way to return his call so he had to get through, no voicemail.

What was it, Wednesday night? Two or three AM? Which would actually make it Thursday morning, but either way, Sasuke would probably be asleep – or at least at home.

Sasuke wouldn't answer his phone, _especially_ at night if it woke him up, but Sakura would. Sakura answered every call, text, internet-based message, _anything_. She never passed up a chance to be social.

So Naruto dialed the seven digits quickly and waited several rings before a groggy Sakura answered with a tired '_hello?_'

"Sakura-chan it's me."

"_Naruto? Jesus Christ is that you?_"

Her voice was suddenly awake and he could hear her sit up on the other line.

"Yeah, listen, Sakura-chan–"

"_Naruto, what the hell? You just like, fell off the face of the earth! Where have you been?_"

"Sakura-chan! _Listen!_ I need you to go get Sasuke. I need to talk to him. I don't have a lot of time."

She paused for a moment and Naruto tapped his finger against the receiver in an attempt to reign in his patience; he didn't want to yell at Sakura when she was the only person that could give him the one thing he needed.

"_Sasuke isn't here_," she finally supplied in a sorrowful tone that made Naruto's heart skip a beat in unease.

"_What?_ What do you mean he's not there? Where the hell else would he be on a Wednesday night?"

"_Sasuke…he didn't really take it well when you left last time. He's spending this semester with his uncle up north._"

"You're kidding," he attempted, his voice the complete definition of disbelief; Sasuke was completely unreachable and somehow the knowledge was setting in with a tightening panic on his chest and he reminded himself to breathe normally and stay calm.

"_I'm – I'm not kidding. Naruto, what's going on? Where are you calling from?_"

"County jail."

And with that, he slammed the phone onto the receiver with an incredulous '_shit!_' before an officer was guiding him roughly back toward his holding cell.

Sasuke wasn't taking it well – was he alright? Was he at least faring better than the place Naruto was at now? What could make Sakura sound that level of remorse upon thinking about it? It left a horrible feeling at the pit of his stomach and somehow everything around him just felt four times more unpleasant.

He stood where he was told as the officer closed and locked the heavy, solid door to his cement room before backing up until his cuffed hands slipped through the slot in the door and he leaned forward a little to make it easier; he remembered how it was done. With two swift clicks, the handcuffs disappeared from his wrists and he let his arms fall limply to his sides as the spring in the door pushed the metal flap covering the slot for his hands shut, throwing the room into a cold silence.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there before he was finally lying down on his cot, staring up at the ceiling and thinking little of what was coming and mostly of what he'd done and it played back before his eyes endlessly through the rest of the morning.

He didn't sleep. He probably wouldn't for a good amount of nights – not if they were anywhere near as internally horrific as this one. He was pretty sure he'd never feel the same. He ended a human life. And he never felt more conflicted in his life; he did and didn't regret it.

And reality was kind of starting to kick in…

He jumped as he was yanked from his thoughts as the door to a barred window in the top of the door was opened with a loud bang as the metal swung open against the concrete and he sat up hesitantly.

"Ready to talk?" the officer asked from outside, his tone as condescending as they came. Naruto narrowed his eyes and flipped him off for good measure as he laid back down, eyes returning to the ceiling; it's not like it mattered what he did – he was probably going to prison for the rest of his life. He committed premeditative murder. That alone had a minimum sentencing of life in prison. He could get far worse.

"Actually, I wasn't asking. Get up," the man restated rudely.

Naruto sat up with an irritable edge to his movement and he stepped over to the door with narrowed eyes that stared straight through the small window at the person behind it and he could tell that his lack of sleep was getting to him. He felt so agitated.

He turned and stuck his hands through the slot as it was opened and he was cuffed before the door was pulled open and he was led to an empty interrogation room and un-cuffed before he was left there alone with no instruction.

His eyes scanned the walls the second the door shut and he analyzed the clock hanging crookedly over a reflective surface he recognized right away by the type of wall beneath it so he stood from his chair and went straight for it, the inhabitants of the room behind it backing up a little at his steadfast nature as he pressed his pointer finger against the reflective surface and he narrowed his eyes.

There was no gap between his finger and its reflection; so either this was an extremely expensive first-surface mirror so he could see how good he looked while he was getting interrogated for murder, or that was a two-way mirror and he was being watched.

So he asked himself, in an interrogation room, which scenario was more likely?

He knocked on the solid wall gently with his knuckle, earning a dull thud, then proceeded to tap at the glass to earn a rewardingly hallow sound that made him smirk a little.

His hand dropped back down to his side as he glanced back up at the clock hanging on the wall above the mirror for a swift moment before he turned back toward the table with a contemplative look, one hand resting on the backrest of the chair closest to him as his thumb tapped the metal frame in thought.

In one swift movement, he grabbed the chair and lifted it up over his head and shot the mirror an unsure look, one eyebrow raised in anticipation while the inhabitants of the room moved back and to the side, clenching any paperwork or reading material to their chests in keenness, breaths held and officers tense and ready to intervene the second it happened.

Although, _Naruto_ couldn't see any of it happening – but he knew people were there; and he hoped they were startled.

But with a filthy smirk he set the chair down against the wall and stepped up on it to straighten the only item hung on the bleak walls of the small, over-lit room.

And with that he stepped down, returned the chair to its original spot, and sat down quietly without so much as a fidget. All he would do is glance up at the clock every few minutes.

It felt like hours but Naruto only recorded forty-seven minutes before enough was enough; he was too tired for this shit – he just wanted to get this all over with.

"I did it," he admitted to the empty room, "So just bring whatever I need to sign. I don't get a fuck about representation."

He knew they were listening on the other side of the two-way mirror and he wasn't surprised when it was only moments before the door was popped open and an interrogation officer entered the room with a clipboard in hand.

"I–"

But before he could continue, the clipboard was tossed down in front of him with a noisy clatter as the wood met the metal surface of the table.

"You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Sign here," the interrogator instructed as he handed him a pen.

They went through the rest of his Miranda's and after signing the last one, he set the pen down on the top sheet of paper before it was taken away from before him and the officer took a seat across the table from him, clipboard resting on the table next to a manila envelope that Naruto hadn't really noticed until now.

"This isn't the first time you've been arrested," the man began as he flipped open the file, "You were arrested at age fourteen on charges of intent to sell and spent four months in Juvenile Detention?"

"Yes."

"And yesterday night, on Wednesday, August fourteenth, did you, or did you not illustrate and carry out plans to end this person's life?"

A picture of Kyuubi was placed before him on the table and he stared down at it for a long moment.

"I did it. I killed him," he admitted in a tone hardly above a whisper.

"Why?"

"That's – irrelevant," the blonde deemed monotonously before shifting his eyes to his hands as they twisted in his lap. He could make excuses – he could make them feel really bad for him; he could tell them all about all the horrible things Kyuubi did to him and his mother every second he got. But this wasn't about what Kyuubi did. This was about what _Naruto_ did and Naruto wasn't making excuses for himself; as his father always said – excuses were a poor way of evading responsibility.

Plus, his mother was still somewhere out there amongst all the people who worked directly with Kyuubi and he didn't want to get her killed by slipping up and getting someone else arrested.

"_How'd_ you do it?"

"I drugged him."

"I think it was a _little_ more thought out than that," the man assumed with a steadfast firmness to his tone that made Naruto narrow his eyes because he caught the innuendo.

"Well it looks like you've already got it all figured out so why are you asking me about it?"

"I'd just like to figure out what causes a kid to do something like this," the man answered honestly.

"But I'm not a kid. I'm a legal adult."

"Biologically, you're still a kid."

"I know you probably have some sort of psychoanalysis going on in the room behind that two-way mirror, but I know what I did and I'm definitely not going to sit here and justify murder because no matter what provoked me, I still killed someone and this is called a consequence so let's skip all the empathetic bullshit you've got lined up about how you can 'help me if I can help you' and whatever other empty promises you can think of. I've been here before and they fucked me over! I know you don't give two shits about _me_ – you just want as much information on Kyuubi's drug cartel as you can squeeze out of his dead body and I'm just not giving it to you."

"Is it because you were involved in drug trafficking again?"

Naruto watched his laced fingers clench against the back of his hands and he smiled a little in disbelief. He thought he made himself pretty clear.

"I killed him. That's all that matters, isn't it? I don't think you need anything else."

The interrogation officer leaned back in his chair, inquisitive and puzzled eyes watching Naruto with skepticism.

"It just doesn't add up," the man stated as he leaned back in his chair, "It wasn't _violent_ so you're obviously not malicious–"

"I killed someone and thought about it doing it for a _long_ time. Just the first part makes me malicious. Good people don't kill people. I think that's the politically correct way to put it."

"So you _don't_ think what you did was wrong," the officer assumed with a fraction of inquiry in his tone.

"No, I don't. Look at the things he's been to prison for and then ask me how I could possibly do what I did. But, to be diplomatic, he _was_ an innocent civilian that served his time for the things he did and I killed him completely unprovoked so – draw your own conclusion."

"Do you _want_ to go to prison?"

Naruto let out a monosyllable form of an ironic '_ha!_' as he shot the wall to his left an insulted look.

"I'm not _stupid_. I understand the laws and expectations of society. I don't want to go to _fucking_ prison! But I have to."

There was little that the interrogator had to say in return because it was true. He _did_ have to go to prison. With or without a good sob story, it was still against the law to kill people and it wouldn't erase what Naruto had done.

He had to go to prison.

And he did – he was sentenced for more years than he'd live in close security prison and he was still trying to accept it. It was a pretty weird feeling and he wasn't sure it set in yet. He was supposed to receive maximum security for what he'd done, but his lawyer mentioned that his young age and non-confrontational demeanor probably encouraged the judge to go a little easy on him and take him down a notch.

Still, close security was the second highest level of security and arguably far more dangerous for him – he'd have contact with other inmates _and_ a roommate.

He lucked out insanely on the roommate though; it was some perverted old man who somehow knew and adored his father. He still didn't know the story but he didn't ask yet either because he wasn't sure it was ok.

His name was Jiraiya, but by a series of events that he mostly forgot about in lieu of the nickname that came forth, he mostly just called him Ero-sennin. He was a martial artist of some sort and Naruto was learning some pretty cool stuff from him; they literally spent twenty-four hours a day together so it would be pathetic if he _wasn't_ learning anything.

Getting ahold of Sasuke took several weeks, but when he did finally get through – when he heard Sasuke's voice through the receiver of the telephone on his ear, the wait had been worth it.

Something about his tone caught Naruto off guard, and he had a feeling Sasuke had planned to take Naruto's call; that he knew it would be coming and made himself reachable because of it.

For a while, they talked about nothing and valiantly avoided the fact that Naruto was calling from prison. But it came up and Naruto was silent when Sasuke inquired about it.

Not that Sasuke expected anything different – so he changed the subject because he had a discreet message to deliver and no time to waste getting angry with him.

"_You've probably been reading a lot of books_."

"Yeah," Naruto affirmed disinterestedly.

"_Those summaries on the inside covers are always interesting_. _There's always a really deep message under all those words_."

"Mhm…"

But then a thought blossomed across Naruto's mind and he understood that Sasuke thought very little of the shitty books they got to read here and he wanted to smile or exclaim how brilliant Sasuke was; but that would completely defeat the purpose of a hidden message.

"Everything's interesting when you're in prison."

Naruto could hear Sasuke let out the breath in his lungs and there was a short moment of silence and Naruto knew what was coming next.

"_Good luck dobe, be careful, ok?_"

Naruto didn't respond; he sunk the phone into the receiver one goodbye too soon but he knew Sasuke had nothing left to say and he didn't either.

Plus, it wasn't goodbye.

Sasuke had something waiting for him, hidden in the book he checked out beneath the author's summary on the inside of the cover.

He roamed back to his room and he brought the book to his cot before flipping it open in his lap.

There! He saw it – it was a tiny slit in the lamination; just big enough for him to slip the corner of his fingernail under and completely rip open.

He yanked back the lamination and ruined the book a little but it was worth it.

Lying on the inside of the lamination was a small message on a tiny piece of dull yellow paper.

_I'm coming for you, dobe_.

End.

So there you have it. Sasuke's going to break Naruto out of prison (incase that wasn't obvious) and they'll live happily ever after.

Or will they? I'm sort of writing a sequel. With a more definite end. To answer a few unanswered questions. But I'm not sure when or if I'll post it. Not a lot of people seemed to show much interest in this one and I sort of lost my enthusiasm for it in lieu of other stories that I'm enjoying writing more lol. But we'll see. I could get excited about it again in the future. It happens a lot. I'm rather fickle :]

1. In my country, the officer arresting you is required to read you your Miranda Rights otherwise all evidence found within context of conversation is unusable in court – this goes for a full blown confession before hearing your rights too. And I know Naruto wouldn't have Miranda Rights because he lives in Japan but I would rather be lazy! :]


End file.
